Page 23 - June24

and appearance of all his equipment, including his King Air. Accordingly, his diligent pilot made darn sure that King Air was in pristine condition at all times.
It turns out the pilot happened upon a new, fantastic degreaser. It was perfect for getting grease off everything, and he used it on the King Air to great success or so he thought. This happened right after the gear inspections were done, so of course the landing gear got regular treatment. Liberally applied on a repeated basis, this degreaser worked its way into the wheel bearings and stripped them of all lubrication. You can see the result in the photo. The pilot’s perfect find wasn’t so perfect after all.
What to Use?
All maintenance manuals must identify the greases to be used on an aircraft. There are a few places on a King Air where very specialized greases are specified in the manual. The oxygen shut-off valve is one example. In this article I’m talking about general lubrication items and the manual calls out various mil spec (military specification) greases to be used for these applications.
For wheel bearings, I always favored a wonderfully thick grease that is red in color. Many shops use a yellow
grease, but I just loved this red stuff for wheel bearings. I like its consistency and resilience, and it conforms with maintenance manual specs. This is the grease my shop used for the wheel bearings at every six-year gear inspection. Although the wheels and gear are on the 200-hour lube item list, I greased them at every Phase, even if the airplane only flew 40 hours since its last inspection. You can’t grease something too much, but you sure can fail to not grease it enough, and the consequences of doing so are never cheap.
A Fine Mess
I took a lot of flak from my customers about the mess created by my red grease in the months following a Phase inspection. Traces of this grease would appear on the gear after every flight. But no matter how much they complained, I knew darn well they’d rather wipe up a little mess than risk major damage due to insufficient or no lubrication. Now that would be a real mess!
The right grease, properly applied, minimizes friction and promotes longevity of the parts involved. Furthermore, proper lubrication offers protection against corrosion. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough. So, keep a rag handy for those little messes.
Kadex Aero Supply LTD
JUNE 2024
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 21