Page 24 - June24

Clean Freaks Restrain Yourselves
The maintenance manual specifies that the grease used on your aircraft be water resistant. Obviously, you need something that will survive the rain and routine washing of the aircraft. As most of you know by now, I do not recommend pressure washers in the cleaning of aircraft. If one is used on your King Air, you should personally ensure it is used sparingly.
Never use a pressure washer to clean the wheels or landing gear. Doing so just hastens corrosion, and that equals big, big maintenance bills. Unfortunately, the wheels and gear are exactly where people want to use a pressure washer the most, to remove brake dust in the wheels and grime in the gear. Pilots and owners need to think past a little grease and grime to the cost of exchange wheels after your cores are condemned for corrosion.
If you are an obsessive clean freak – restrain yourself. That is an order! Pressure washers push the grease aside and inject water where it doesn’t belong. Solvents or degreasing cleaners are even worse as they dissolve the grease entirely. When water gets where it should not go, corrosion follows. Please, I am begging you ... leave the grease to do its job.
Figure 2: Fresh grease is pushed through the bearing with a bearing packer.
Figure 3: Wheel bearing packed with grease and ready for reinstallation.
22 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JUNE 2024
King Air Academy