The so-called "special purpose" grease Harley sells specifically for steering head bearings claims to be less likely to liquefy and run out. Strangely enough, when I bought my first tube of that stuff for my '99 Dyna there was an inch of liquid in the tube. So much for that BS claim. I still had the rest of that tube on the shelf when it came time to lube the '05 SEEG and I used the rest of it filling up the chamber in the steering head through the zerk. Within days liquid was collecting in the top of the lower fork bracket that I had to sop up with paper towels. Not just oozing grease, but liquid. So once again, I call BS on that Special Purpose overpriced grease.
One thing you may run into when changing to a different brand and type of grease is a compatibility problem. Rather than disassemble my SEEG's front end and clean all the old Harley grease out, I just switched to the Green high temp grease from Advance Auto or Auto Zone (I forget which). It seemed to be fine for the first year, but the following year the steering felt "sticky", for want of a better description. This time I pumped enough of that green stuff through the steering head (another full tube plus what I had left over from the first time) until I felt reasonably assured I had really flushed all the old crap out. The steering has been fine since. And while the green stuff will still ooze out, it isn't the runny liquid crap I got with the Harley grease that got all over the front of the bike.
Jerry
Author
Topic: Suitable neck grease (Read 4661 times)