What works best on cables and pulleys? I am starting to suspect that repeated use of certain "aircraft" lubes may eventually lead to gumming? Any favorites?

ACF-50

I like a spray lube designed for open chains. It stays in place and has moly disulfide which is an excellent high pressure lube.

tom

Lubes containing Moly intensifies the Anode and Cathode reactions and should be avoided.

There is not to many points on an aircraft that the extreme pressure quality of Moly outweighs the negative effects.

The problem occurs as the film strength deteriorates and the moly is exposed to atmospheric conditions, it then becomes corrosive.

mr scout wrote:Lubes containing Moly intensifies the Anode and Cathode reactions and should be avoided.

There is not to many points on an aircraft that the extreme pressure quality of Moly outweighs the negative effects.

The problem occurs as the film strength deteriorates and the moly is exposed to atmospheric conditions, it then becomes corrosive.

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to dis-assemble some of the joints to see what is happening. So far in boat applications and many other uses I haven't seen a problem, but I sure don't want any corrosion in my aircraft control system.

tom

Back in my early days, Late 50s, early 60s, I remember that everyone was using the old standard white Lubriplate. Problem I found with it while scouring over old Rag Time airplanes was that the Lubriplate dried out and became like hard tile caulking and would bind up such items as aielerons, elevators, etc. Now use one of the spray lubes. Corrosion-x, AC-50 etc.

We are talking pulley's and not cables right? What happened to motor oil? Or a quality gun oil would probably have all the qualities you are looking for. ACF-50 and my favorite Corrosion-X are excellent for corrosion prevention, but are they good for lube?

I was wondering about both cable and pulley, but the gumming effect is more directed towards pulley lube.

I've been using Tri-Flo for 25+ years and never seen anything negative about it. Best part is that the "lube" qualities stay there even after wiping it off.
JH

Reason I ask is that corrosion-X would be excellent for the cables, but something like the tri-flow John suggested would do well for the pulleys.
John,
If I'm not mistaken tri-flow contains teflon and that is what is left behind. It's an excellent product but I haven't seen it for a while. Have you tried CLP?

No, haven't tried the CLP. I just picked up a couple cans of TriFlo at the local True Value Hardware store the other day. It's good stuff!
JH

I'll give Tri-Flow a whirl on a few pulleys and see what happens. Nobody mentioned LPS 2 or CRC PowerLube yet...