Lubricating (Very Old) 608ZZ Bearings?

Asking on here because I couldn't really find a better forum for the thread....

Going through my basement and cleaning up, I came across some old 608ZZ bearings from my "Rollerblades" (Circa 1990's, official brand) - I had upgraded to ABEC5(I think?) higher speed bearings at the time, and saved the original ones. Being the mild hoarder I am, they survived moving to 3 houses all these years in two nice plastic tubes (semi air tight).

The bearings still move pretty easily, but I can tell the original lubrication has aged and is rather 'sticky'. Is there any way to easily re-lubriate these? I have 16 of them which I can use is my projects (and models from Thingiverse of course), but don't know how good they'd be in their current condition.

grease them

Yes grease, I did the same, might feel like it's 'not working' at first, but after a few days of turning, the bearings will run like new. I took my old skateboard bearings.

Some people use oils and the like, in my experience the oil runs out much faster than the good old grease.

No cleaning required? Is lithium grease ok? Or should I buy something else? (Lithium is allI I got)

I use a high temp grease only cos I work in a bearing manufacturing, i wouldn't use wd40 either or oil

Exactly, no WD40 or Oil.

Lithium grease doesn't sound like the thing you want. You need dedicated bearing grease.




chris33 Wrote:
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> I use a high temp grease only cos I work in a
> bearing manufacturing, i wouldn't use wd40 either
> or oil

ok well absolutely no wd-40. take the shields off, if they are metal you will not be able to put them back in so only remove one, then remove the nylon retainer, if they are metal then just leave them. then clean with acetone until all residue is removed. then re-lube with speed cream or any lube from your local skate shop. if you want to be extra thorough you can actually remove all of the balls and really give them a good cleaning.

aduy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ok well absolutely no wd-40. take the shields off,
> if they are metal you will not be able to put them
> back in so only remove one, then remove the nylon
> retainer, if they are metal then just leave them.
> then clean with acetone until all residue is
> removed. then re-lube with speed cream or any lube
> from your local skate shop. if you want to be
> extra thorough you can actually remove all of the
> balls and really give them a good cleaning.


Thanks! They are metal, I'll use a little acetone to clean them up and put some fresh grease on them. Now I'm glad I saved them all these years