What type of lubricant should be used in consoles?

Hey guys,
I'm currently refurbishing a Sega Saturn, and I've washed off that white, greasy lubricant that normally coats various parts in the system. What type of lubricant should be used to replace it? It sorta has the consistency of petroleum jelly, so that?

 

[FONT=Lucida Grande, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]White lithium grease is often used for gears and other such movable parts in electronic devices.

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^ Used it many of times on various consoles and computer parts.

 

Will any lithium grease do the trick? Like the kind available at auto stores? Or should I be looking more at the white grease used in RC cars?

 

I use Tamiya Ceramic grease, never had an issue. My brother inlaw works at Toyworld in the RC section, so get it at a good price. Remember a small amount goes a long way.

 

Generally you only need to lube the metal part of the gear. Plastic gear usually are fine and may react badly with the wrong type of grease.

PS no, bacon grease will not work.

 

So either white lithium grease or ceramic grease will do the job?

 

Either or, another thing I use the Tamiya grease for is things like the workings of the door opening buttons. Think PS1, dreamcast, Saturn etc. Anywhere where a button pushes on a lever. Pivot points and hinges as well

 

Im not an expert but i like Silicon grease. Its inert, non conductive, safe on plastics and can be had for dirt cheap in the plumbing section of your local convenience store.

 

You need to use a grease that do not chemically attack rubber or plastics. That's why people stick to the white lithium grease, which was developed specifically to lubricate plastic gears...

 

Good call! That's why I've just placed an order for some Tamiya ceramic grease, it's intended for use on gears and omp recommended it. Thanks for your help guys!

 

I generally don't lubricate any drive mechs except for ones that certain design features:
1: Drives that don't have axles in their design (PlayStations)
2: Drives that have a worm gear design (Turbo CD, anything Dreamcast or later, most laptop drives, exception: UMD drives may not need it)
3: Drives that run at high speeds (4x CD-ROM and faster, Almost anything post Y2K)
4: Drives that have a bulky laser (anything Laserdisc)
5: Drives that have jam prone trays (Sega CD 1, axle mount PlayStation 2s, LaserDisc hardware)

NEVER Lubricate these components:
1: Low friction laser units (Magneto-optical drives including minidisc, usually these have a braking cushion at the ends of the track)
2: Jewel bearings (many Iomega format drives possibly the N64DD)
3: Belt drives (Most tray load units, most floppy drives prior to the Zip format, Famicom Disk System)
4: Components that can be damaged by dust or chemicals (Turbografx/PC Engine CD gears, many exotic magnetic drives)
5: Anything inside an NES (I don't know why but an NES I had, some moron went wild greasing EVERYTHING, it took me days to clean that thing up)

 

What is there to lubricate inside a NES anyway? The only moving part is the cartridge slot cover.

 

That is the point, someone was actually stupid enough to do that, the worst of it was on the controller ports and the power/reset buttons.

 

I made some more research on Silicon grease. Silicon grease is the best grease for rubber. It actually helps preserve rubber, this is one of the reasons it is used to lubricate rubber gaskets in plumbing. There is not alot of rubber parts that need lube in consoles though...

It also does not dry out or attracts dirt as quickly as lithium grease. However it should not be used in parts with electrical contacts such as switches, pots, connectors as it is a very strong electrical insulator.

All this being said the only parts i ever lubricate in consoles and computers are:
-Optical or floppy drive step motor mechanism (silicon grease or lithium grease )
-Fans ( contact cleaner with lubricant)
-Some switches ( contact cleaner with lubricant )

 

Thanks for the tip! Don't worry, I only plan to lubricate what originally had greased applied to it (gears, pivot points etc)

 

BTW "axle mount PlayStation 2s" means those early models that have a metal rod on the left side, those rods sometime benefit from a good clean/lube cycle.

 

Has anyone ever lubricated the D-pad on a Saturn? From the looks of things, it does a bit of rubbing, so greasing it up would help prevent it from wearing out. But at the same time, they didn't come stock with grease, so....

 

How about 3-in-1 oil as an alternative?

 

That would be good for the metal shields inside some systems?

To prevent them from rusting as i have a had a few like that.

 

I would think that wouldn't be thick enough, and it might even damage the plastic.