Swepco 101 for CV joints

[dougnlina]

I have switched to Swepco 101 for my CVs and am very pleased with its performance. I put an average of 10,000 miles a year on the van. I had previously been using the Redline CV-2 that GoWesty sold. I was in the habit of servicing the axles once a year with the redline because it seemed to not hold up. It just did not seem to age well. After the rainy season (November to march here in NorCal) the CV-2 grease would be milky, runny, and just seemed to have broken down. (sorry no photos) I assumed it was absorbing water due to its appearance, but it could have just been the grease falling apart.

Four years ago I replaced the CVs and switched to the Swepco grease. Since then, I have serviced the axles twice (now once every two years about 20,000 miles) and this grease is solid, it does not get runny, and I honestly think I could let it go quite a bit longer than I have been.
Cleaning these up the grease still seemed like new, I would be comfortable running this grease longer at this point. I also feel that if you were one of those "types" who would prefer not to do this messy maintenance task, that this would be an excellent candidate to be the "lifetime" grease you put in there and forget about it until the joint started making noise.

First two images are of a CV as removed from the van, 2 years and 20000 miles on the grease, 40,000 miles on the joint.

These are images of the joints after cleaning them up, they are just starting to break in and get shiny wear spots.

One tube was enough to do 3 joints, or two if you wanted to pack the crap out of it and put a lot in the boot, now quite enough in my opinion to do 4 joints though. YMMV
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"Grover" a '87 Syncro Poptop 1.8T
"Olive" a '60 Ragtop Beetle (retired)

[DanHoug]

the only moly grease available locally was the Stalube moly. prolly not a bad grease but i found some Swepco 101 on clearance and was around $12 a tube. i got 4 of them, put one in my dedicated moly grease gun.

looking at the specs, it has a high moly content and other favorable parameters. glad to hear it is working well.

one tube left!!
https://www.pscmotorsports.com/fl-swepco-101-moly-grease.html
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[Wildthings]

I never pulled the CV joints on my 1991 until the tranny failed at around 240K miles. When almost new with only 30K miles from the factory the joints had started making noise because of the junky factory grease or low volume thereof so I pumped brand X lithium grease into them to get back on the road and then added some moly grease once I got home and every 30-50K miles thereafter. The joints were only lightly pitted when I finally took them off to pull the transmission, but I replaced them at that time anyway, figuring I could eventually use them on one of my older rigs. The present CV's have now been on the rig for around 200K miles and will some get their first full service because I need to pull the tranny to reseal it. I am not expecting to find anything beyond some polishing of the races.

If I had to do it over again, I would have added more grease to the CV's the day the van came off the dealer's lot and then do the 30-50K mile addition of a bit of extra grease.

Over the years I have used Stalube, Valvoline, and Cenex, whichever was available and reasonably priced and was in my grease gun.

[dhaavers]

Good looking goo there. Keep on it, I say…

FWIW, I’m done with Redline. Here’s my previous experience with CV-2 grease after 25k miles..

- Dave

PS: Thanks for the link, Dan!
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[DanHoug]

Dave- that looks like the cheese around my toilet wax ring. did you smell it??!! <grin>
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[dhaavers]

Just curious, do we know what % moly in the Swepco? Couldn’t find it on the link…

- Dave
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[dougnlina]

[ALIKA T3]

I too have been using Swepco, but the 164 model, since I had read about it years ago on a hardcore offroad racer forum.
T3Technique sells it too.

Good stuff.
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Silicone Steering Boots and 930 Cv boots for sale in the classifieds.
Syncro transmission upgrade parts in the Classifieds.
Subaru EJ22+UN1 5 speed transmission
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416343
Syncro http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...num+gadget

[dhaavers]

[skemems]

[dhaavers]

^^^ Indeed. Saw that, checked that.

FWIW, the SDS only gives a “range” which reportedly includes the amount, but does not specify the actual amount. WTH???

Without an actual number, there is no evidence that Swepco is any better than any other grease with 5% moly. (Or possibly even less…???)

Still looking for an actual answer…

<shrug>

- Dave
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[DanHoug]

while Amsoil is good at disclosing the percent moly in their formulations, Swepco is not. the Swepco MSDS says 1-5%. whatever.

while moly is great, i'm not sure the percentage is of great consequence to us in CV use. things like flowability, water resistance, oil separation, and wear tests that make a good CV grease are probably better indicators. as is real world usage reports from valid sources.

viewing photos of old grease in CVs with Swepco vs Redline conjure words like butter vs cheese in my mind. the butter having a better chance of reflowing back into the ball track. lots of variables at play here of course so have the discriminator knob turned up pretty high when evaluating this.

but it has convinced me that the sweetheart Red Moly may be best left to song and not in my CV joints.

Oh, says Red Molly to James "That's a fine motorbike.
A girl could feel special on any such like"
Says James to Red Molly "My hat's off to you
It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[dhaavers]

Ok, I get that. For the sake of discussion, then…

FWIW, here’s my current favorite, comparable (yet much more affordable) than the popular old “CAT Desert Gold” grease…

https://www.amalie.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/AMALIE_Pro_Tac_Plus_Sell_Sheet.pdf

What to compare, then…???

- Dave
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>