Staburags NBU 30 PTM Grease

[b25bsaboy]

Afternoon,

Came across this while reading the legendary shop manual called Cylmers BMW. Don't want to start a tread or flame, but what is it? Spline Grease?

[Stan_R80/7]

Here is a link to the product description with some technical information, it is a barium based grease:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/markdou..._30_PTM-en.pdf

It seems the main benefit of the grease is it's resistance to water - but there may be other benefits as well. A search on barium vs lithium based grease may shed some other information. Basically, it is a barium-soap based grease in mineral oil.

[b25bsaboy]

Here is a link to the product description with some technical information, it is a barium based grease:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/markdou..._30_PTM-en.pdf

It seems the main benefit of the grease is it's resistance to water - but there may be other benefits as well. A search on barium vs lithium based grease may shed some other information. Basically, it is a barium-soap based grease in mineral oil.

Stan, Thank you for the response. I have the transmission out of my 89 R100RT to service the neutral switch seal, and the lube the splines. I seem to recall this product and after I get this off with my Thanks you, will go into my BMW drawer and see if in fact I may have a tube of this lithium grease.

Best Regards,

[Stan_R80/7]

I have a tube of this grease from (Mortons?) BMW. It is not a typical grease, but any BMW parts dealer should have some. The grease is for the transmission input splines.

[20774]

Snowbum mentions that this was a grease (he says Staburags but doesn't quote the whole product number) used in the past by BMW and it might have been somewhat abrasive, though he hadn't seen that. It seems he suggests using it in a mixture with something else that provides a little more moly grease.

Matt Parkhouse recommended (in ON June 2009) a 50-50 mix of Sig-3000 and Honda Moly 60 paste.

[Stan_R80/7]

Has BMW changed the grease recommendation for the airhead splines? The grease I have is (literally) 20 years old. It is still good and a small tube lasts quite a while.

I have no idea why BMW chose a barium soap lubricant for the transmission input splines but am confident the choice was not arbitrary and was made by one or more experienced engineers for a reason. This is not a grease easily found outside of a BMW dealership. If BMW has changed their recommendation for spline lubricant, that would be very useful information.

[20774]

Stan -

Yes, BMW has changed spline greases more than a few times over the years. At one point IIRC the grease was a white grease...absolutely worthless. Snowbum discusses greases here:

http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/chemicalsetc.htm

I read his stuff and found the Chevron NLG1/2 red tacky grease he mentions...actually I had to "do the deal" in a parking lot with a petroleum engineer...and mix about 30% moly bearing grease into it.

[Walking Eagle]

Kurt, are you confessing to an illicit grease deal in the dark of night?

MANY grease threads to read, and yore eyes will be spinning before you're done. Everybody has an opinion, and there are (now) a lot of perfectly good choices out there. My opinion, after reading until my eyes bled, is that the "good" choices have one thing in common: Some kind of "sticky" grease mixed 50/50 with Honda Moly 60 (or equivalent, to get around a 30% moly content in the goo.) YRMV.

Walking Eagle

[20774]

Kurt, are you confessing to an illicit grease deal in the dark of night?

Did I say that?? I meant during the day...that's better, right? Actually, I recall that I didn't pay anything for the 3-4 tubes he gave me...I took the trouble to call around and track it down...he just said to enjoy them and share...which I've tried to do.

[typ181r90]

I also use the W??rth Sig 3000 grease mixed with Honda Moly. That grease is super sticky and is an excellent high impact grease. It's a little hard to find, but I found it at an online Moto Guzzi shop where they were advertising it for F/D splines

[42906]

It's a funny thing, but I have owned a K-100RS for 28 years and put 287,000 miles on it in that time. The clutch splines still look like new, and I have never used any of the high-zoot factory recommended greases. I use a thick, nasty moly wheel bearing grease from Sta-Lube and do the spline service every 50K miles. I do lube the pinion splines every 10K as those are the ones that seem to wear the fastest and it's easy enough to slide the final drive off the swingarm with the wheel still attached.