Which grease for a Dewalt cordless hammer drill

[MikeH]

I'm changing the brushes on an old Dewalt 18v hammer drill (DC 989), and want to clean out some of the dirty grease and replace. Does anybody know what I'm supposed to use? I sent Dewalt an email, but there's no telling when they'll get back to me.

 

[Bacon!]

I can't tell you specifically for that make/model but many use what looks like an NLGI #1 lithium complex grease for the gearbox, or #0 if the gearbox fits together well enough that there isn't much leakage, then #2 for any pins/shafts/etc.

If I didn't have any NLGI #1 or #0, and since #2 is far more common for automotive/etc applications, I'd thoroughly mix a little motor oil into #2 to thin it a little... of course it's *safer* to tell people to not DIY like that, to buy it off the shelf at the right NLGI #, but I personally wouldn't buy a 14oz tube of grease to use only 1/10th oz in a drill unless you've got other applications for it.

Resist the urge to over-pack it, too much grease will significantly increase friction and slow the drill down.

Is it really dirty or just dark from having moly in it?

 

[MikeH]

...

Resist the urge to over-pack it, too much grease will significantly increase friction and slow the drill down.

Is it really dirty or just dark from having moly in it?

Thanks for the advice, especially not packing it in. That probably would have been my mistake, and that leaning might be why I assumed I needed more. In looking more closely, it looks like the grease in the actual gear box is pretty clean--the housing around it is just so cruddy that I assumed. Now it strikes me that I should have cleaned all that up thoroughly before opening it up the rest of the way.

By the way, when the notification came in that you'd replied, I couldn't help but laugh:
"Which Grease ... "
Bacon!
has replied

I'll check around in what I've got, not sure that I have any #1, but I might.

 

[MikeH]

Interesting. Dewalt got back to me, and they recommended a thin coat of CV joint grease. Not the kind of answer I expected.

 

[Bacon!]

I would just get a parts tub of gasoline and a toothbrush to get all the old grease out first, then use the NLGI #2 with or w/o moly, thinned with a little oil... unless you happen to have some NLGL#1 or #0 lying around.

 

[KDoug]

Bacon, thanks for the information also. I've been buying broken/abused power tools and refurbishing them. I ended up buying a couple different types of Milwaukee grease, because I figured I would use it a handful of times, but it still is a little pricey for what you get. Now Dewalt's grease on their parts schematic is insanely expensive. I'm talking about like $80 for a small tub.