Cable lube

Do white lithium or silicone work well for cable lubrication?

 

Silicone is ok, but I'd avoid lithium lubricants for this -- there are solids in lithium grease that can, over time, gum up the works. There are a few specialized cable lubricants.. such as "Cable Life" or PJ1 cable lube. Some also come with a handy little attachment that allow you to force lube through the cable jacket.

 

I gotta chip in and agree with stereo here to be careful not to use anything not specifically recommended for cable lubrication. The PO of my Maxim-X apparently used graphite (sounds crazy but I think that's what it was). At first it didn't make much difference. But as I owned the bike for a while the clutch got harder and harder to squeeze. I put up with it for a while until I went on a long group charity ride. On the way home my left hand got so tired from squeezing the clutch that at a stop light it cramped up and I couldn't open my hand to release the clutch. I had to cut off the bike and peel my hand off the clutch with my right hand and massage it until the cramp let up.

I finally had to buy a new clutch cable. The graphite gummed up the old one so badly that no amount of cleaning would get it out.

 

The handy little cable lubber attachment is great. I had to get mine separately but it was only about 10 bucks. Worth it in my opinion. Made lubing the cables much faster.

 

you need to use something that will not attract and hold dirt any oil or grease is bad in my experiance. the dirt will wear out the cable faster. like others here said use a silicone based product or a lube made specifically for cables. wd 40 dries and eventually promotes rusting I have seen this on my childrens bikes now the boys use silicone.

My service manual says use 10w30 but i choose to use silicone.

 

WD40 is evil and only made to Displace Water. Silicone lubes are good, as is PJ1's cable lube.
I use a product called Tri-Flo, it's an industrial spray lube with teflon in it. You can get it at some auto parts and I think Meijer's; it's NOT cheap (like $12-$15 a can) but it is great stuff. Never gums up, is impervious to temperature changes.
I apply it with my trusty "YamaLuber" one of those little cable lube devices in anodized blue with "Yamaha" engraved on it. My Yamaha dealer gave it to me when I bought my '78 SR500.

 

So Fitz, if I understand correctly you got a great deal from a dealer!!!! A cable luber doohickey! For free!

And here all these years later you still remember it! Bet you can even remember the name of the dealer too.

Chalk one up for a smart dealer.

 

Of course I remember him, and always will. His dealership moved; coincidentally to the same town I ended up moving to, and I bought my second SR from him. I got a great deal from him on both bikes, plus great service and it was a cool place just to hang out. The dealership is still there, but the original owner has passed and it sold out to a "Powersports" franchise. I doubt they'd GIVE anything away today.

 

use your motor oil of choice and wrap a paper towel at the bottom end of cable
let it set overnight and keep that lower paper towel there for a few hours after you take the bag off the top

 

What about the ol' "spin it with a drill" trick while oiling?
Hou much oil, an OZ? 2 OZ?

 

who me? i never tried the drill thing, that would mean taking the bottom off
way too much work
how much? 1 oz i guess, the bag will most likely be empty overnight
so use enough towels at the other end to catch it

 

time was refering to using a drill on the cable to turn it to allow the lube everywhere within the cable casing.

I would like to say 1 thing about that. if you decide to do this make sure you go with the twist of the cable so you won't separate the individual wires that make up the cable assembly.

 

I'm doing 3 of my bikes right now! (gotta keep 1 to ride- - it's a nice day!)

Yea a backwards twist would just ruin a cable instantly.

 

Damn you ride I hope like hell you get rained on LOL

here in wisconsin it was nice the last 3 days woke up today and 3 inches of snow on the ground Damn, I guess it gives me more time to get some more stuff done on my ride.

 

Hey fitz if you ever get any kind of tar on your hands WD40 takes it off, great for roofing or tar sealing of any kind! also words good on rubberized undercoating if you get it while it's still wet! So it's not completly evil just mechanicly evil!!

 

WD40 has kerosene in it (which is why it smells "sweet") and that's why it's good at "cleaning" things........but, it's rather expensive compared to kerosene or mineral spirits..