kony said:
The proper lube is very high viscosity oil, "almost" grease
but it is essential that it not be as thick as regular
grease.
Hmm.
That is NEVER what I see in them when I
take them apart.
What I see is an amber/brownish grease like
the old GC Electronics "PhonoLube" if you're
familiar with that. I took a brand-new sleeve
bearing fan apart once just to see what they
did use. Definitely jelly consistency.
PhonoLube tends to seperate out into more liquid
components which is why I don't use it in this
particular application.
I take just a little lithum grease, make a smear between
thumb and forefinger, and "finger" it onto the spindle
shaft of the fan AFTER taking it apart and cleaning
out the old lube, whatever that was...
Then take JUST A VERY LITTLE and do the running
surfaces of the 3 or 4 plastic washers that go on the spindle
shaft on both sides of the stator assembly.
The stuff I'm using is not at all thick feeling, but I can
see your point about using too much - it can hinder rather
than help.
Anyway, I've resurrected more fans than I care to count
this way, some of them are still running in non-computer
applications after many years. Once a fan, of any type,
seizes up in computer equipment, I try not to use them
again in a computer on a permanent basis, I only use them
until I can procure a ball-bearing replacement.
So, I'm sure we've more than beat the topic to death
here - time to agree to disagree on what would seem to be
different methods at arriving at satisfactory results.