Mast base u-joint lubrication, useless?

manuel · Joined: 08 Oct 2007 Posts: 1158

As I was inspecting my uj, a thought came to my mind to lubricate where the plastic cup meets the metal part. Useless, good practise, purposeless, waste of lubricant, theoretical only, revolutionary? Salt water only...

Ugly_Bird · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 335

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Doesn't the silicone migrate to places you don't want it? I've always used silicone-free dry spray lubricants to avoid that problem.

westender · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 1288 Location: Portland / Gorge

Clickbait

Ugly_Bird · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 335

GURGLETROUSERS · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 2643

An interesting topic.

If you used a normal UJ assembly on dry land (Skateboard rig for example) it would seem to make sense to lubricate it to reduce the wear rate. But it seems reasonably clear that water, whether sea or fresh, is not so bad a lubricant in itself.

At least, I like to believe so!!

wynsurfer · Joined: 24 Aug 2007 Posts: 940

I've been using Sailcoat which is a dry lubricant with teflon. Works great!

https://www.mclubemarine.com/sailkote/

PeconicPuffin · Joined: 07 Jun 2004 Posts: 1830

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5329 Location: East Bay

Water lines just fine.
But rinse out small sand particles and grit.

GURGLETROUSERS · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 2643

Some grades of hard plastic (a contradiction in terms not withstanding) have next to no coefficient of friction on almost any wet surface as can be verified by walking (or trying to) down any wet steep hill in cheap supermarket hard plastic soled so called sports shoes. (A steep wet grassy hillside - don't even think about it. Shocked

)

I don't like playing in the bath (didn't the great lamented Brucie once try to balance on a board in his bath?) which is only fresh water, and nothing like the sea, but I felt, for this 'click bait' thread, a little test would be in order.

I rested two different and weighted hard plastic mast bases on a long flat alloy plate with a gentle stream of water (the cold tap, naturally) flowing along it, and progressively raised the end to see which base slid friction (and wear?) free down it first. I can confirm that the Bic base left the other Arrows base standing. (Once on it's way there was no stopping it. Laughing

)

I therefore conclude that Bic hard plastic (they are a leading plastics company) will have less friction and a lower rate of wear than many others.

Perhaps that lack of friction may also explain why I can't read my own writing, since I buy cheap bundles of their plastic pens, which are equally slippery between the fingers! (Though I don't usually write much in the bath. )