Magic grease shortage ??

JDEM

Well-known Member
It is getting so that I buy near everything on-line. That because it gets more and more difficult to find what I need locally.

Yesterday? Gee wiz. All I needed was some grease with the special molybdenum disulphide anti-wear additive.

Same grease International Harvester used to update tractors with splined-shaft wear problems.

It is the standard grease used in a ga-zillion cars and trucks.

I am near the city of Alpena right now. I went to every auto-part store here. I got the "deer in the headlights" look at each one. I also had one young parts "expert" try to give me a bogus lubrication tutorial just to prove to me how much he did not know.

I went to Autozone, NAPA, Carquest, Advance, O'Riellys and one private store. Nobody at any of those stores knew what the heck I was asking for even though they all show it on their Websites. I finally found one little packet at Autozone for $1.99 and it was like pulling teeth. Advance said they could order it and wanted near $6 or the same thing. NAPA offered to open a box with a CV boot kit and rob a packet out of it for $4. Same as the $1.99 packet from Autozone.

So I am kind of astounded. What the heck happened? I also noticed that all the grease I got to see - came from England. Not the US, not Mexico, and not China.
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Maybe you can't get it local because everyone buys online so the locals don't sell anymore. I've predicted that for a long time.
 
They stock what sells.

What sells the most makes the most money.

That's the bottom line, they don't really care about making our lives easier.

One more nail in the coffin for retail sales.
 
I've got to the point where I call ahead of time. I have had the best luck with NAPA. They often don't have what I need, but they seem to be best able to get it and in a pretty timely manner. It saves me to 2nd trip I got tired of making by calling first.
 
If I am correct the same grease is packaged for many different applications. Is probably staring at us on the store shelf.
molybdenum disulphide is not an additive but the major component for the product you seek. The auto parts stores almost certainly have it but are seemingly incapable of finding it. If the store won't dig it up I suggest a call to your closest lubrication distributor. They can and will gladly tell you what product is best (theirs no doubt) and where to find it. I am not positive but carquest has a product- Industrial Moly Grease EP available. I know others have these products as well. This product seems to be very similar if not the same.
There are many lubricants in the same family and are extremely common.
The soap box issue for me is most stores don't take much time dealing with $1.99 issue and won't look if it doesn't fit your 2005 whatever because they don't know how to look up stuff for a guy that knows more than they do.
 
Buying routine items that I have experience with I buy on line. New things that I know nothing about I go to the store now. I have been burned a couple times and the on line reviews for items have gotten ridiculous and unreliable. We wanted a new vacuum recently and I searched Amazon. Almost every one I pulled up had the same percentage of 1-5 stars and when you read the 1 star comments, they mostly all said the same things. Happened several times with different items until I threw in the towel and started hitting the mall. This worked out wonderfully. Now once a week when the kids are home we all go to the mall and have pizza and then wander about and shop. Sometimes stop at other stores coming or going. It is a really good thing and has been designated "pizza night" by the kids. Nice to be out too, everyone together, talking about the past week and the one to come...
 
With it being packaged for cv joints I can understand the difficulty finding it. Considering you can get a rebuilt cv for only a couple dollars more than a boot kit no one is buying it any more and haven't in ages. My local napa has the grease with the additive on the shelf in both cup and tube. Seems like it's Valvoline but I'm too lazy to walk downstairs and check. lol It isn't labeled cv grease and no they woulden't know if you asked but it's there on the shelf so you can read it yourself.
 
Why your seeing less grease on store shelf is because we are using more and more sealed bearings on everything.Most of the younger people out there don't ever know what a grease gun is.
 

$3.99 for 14 oz cartridge at Tractor Supply - in stock where I am. That is for 3% moly-disulphide

Traveller Extreme Duty 3% Moly Lithium Complex NLGI #2 Grease, 14 oz. Cartridge
 
YA! My did did a number of jobs that items froze up because of no grease. One of our farmer friends never greased the pivot on front of 5 bottom semi mounted plow and after dad got done repairing it he told them they needed to learn how to use a grease gun.
 
can't be from over greasing.....our lube guy at work serviced 26 machines in Feb and only used 7 tubes of grease
 
I would agree, demand is probably very low due to people replacing instead of servicing CV joints anymore.

Stores don't stock what doesn't sell.
 
I thought for sure I could find some on-line at a reasonable price. Nope. Best price I could find is $80 for a 12 ounce tube. So - near $7 an ounce. Seems the 3 ounce packets at Autozone for $2 are a better buy - except they don't have any.

I wonder what International Harvester (Case-IH)sells now for repairing hydrostatic-drive tractors? They use the same grease on the spline-shaft drives.
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Got it posted. These are at tractor supply. The green tube is standard grease. For anything you want greased. Just under two bucks. The silver lable stuff has MOLLY in it. Takes more comression and is much heavier duty. Around three seventy five bucks a tube. This is what I use on my stuff. Works dandy.
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I don't know what the best grease to use is or where to get it, but I do know that grease is a heck of a lot more expensive than it used to be!
 

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