AeroShell Grease Shortage

[smoss]

Aeroshell Grease 5 and Grease 6 have been unavailable for months now, and are both on "indefinite" backorder everywhere. What have people been doing for annual prop and wheel bearing lubrication who don't have an old stock of these sitting around?

[krellis]

Cleveland recommends Mobil SHC-100 now which should be available.

If you can’t find Aeroshell 5 or 6, there is a Nyco grease now being used by Hartzell, but they can’t be mixed - so you have to remove the old Aeroshell grease. Not very practical, I know.

[Spinner]

See attached Hartzell prop bulletin. I would recommend the SHC100 use it in all aircraft with cleveland wheels

[smoss]

So is it really being implied that all existing props from prior to 2020 need to be completely disassembled at next servicing for grease change-out now that the old stuff is no longer available for routine servicing? That seems pretty drastic.

[Spinner]

Good question havn't checked my supplies yet of aero 6.

[Rich]

For MT-equipped planes there is no interconnect between prop and wheel bearing grease. Prop grease is only applied when the hub is opened at repair/rebuild and it uses whatever MT recommends/supplies. My current supply of the Aeroshell will do me for a really loonnng time

[Steve]

My next-door neighbor (and good friend) is the Aviation products manager for Shell Oil Company. I asked him about the Grease situation. Apparently, there was a fire at one of the big grease manufacturing plants. He didn't know when the supply chain would catch up. He said that he could get me some, but like Rich, my MT prop doesn't need periodic lubrication other than at overhaul. I use automotive wheel bearing grease for the wheel bearings.

[Rich]

My failing memory - somehow I had forgotten that a couple of years back I wound up getting a can of Mobil SHC100, so that's what I've been using, not the Shell.

[smoss]

Someone is selling a partially used cartridge of AS 6 on ebay for $350! You should take up your neighbor's offer Steve and start selling them on the gray market.

[Steve]

Someone is selling a partially used cartridge of AS 6 on ebay for $350! You should take up your neighbor's offer Steve and start selling them on the gray market.