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You can have problems switching grease types if not done correctly. I assume you don't seal compatibility problems to deal with here as you would find in special equipment such as aircrafts, industrial machinery, ect. Staying with my assumption of your general purpose application in bushing joints, ect. You can switch to any brand or type that is fitting to the application. For normal farm, mine, quarry equipment, you need a greas with at least an NLGI #2 rating becasue of the application. IE: High impact, heavy loading, environment exposure, ect. First you need to find a quality grease that has the properties you require and is readily available in the containers you use be it tubes, buckets or barrels. Several general purpose greases come to mind that you can look at and are usually available everywhere. First choice is Mystik JT-6 high temp red. This is a super grease with good qualities that makes it desirable for the above applications. Texaco has a couple good NLGI 2 formulas with slightly different qualities you can read about on their web site. Mobile is another good brand with several types of greases rated for application use. An NLGI 2 is good from about 85 degrees F down to about 10 degrees F in general purpose application in slow speed bearings, gears and bushing joints. Ambient temps 75F and above should call for using special grease for high temps and selected by application. I use the Mystik JT-6 high temp simply because it is the best all around grease for most all applications high and low speed and in a temp range from -20F to +200F without loosing its lube qualities. To properly change the grease, you have some options. In joints where you can easily take them apart, you should manually clean them and re-assemble with the new grease. For rotating or other joints you don't want to take apart or that require too much time to do such, you should move the joint if can be done safely while pumping the new grease into it. You should use the grease pump to purge all the old grease out until you see only the new grease coming from the exit end of the joint. It makes things messy but is the best way. Some greases are not as quality as others. I like Valvoline oil but thier grease is junk as it bleeds out far too quickly for my liking. Lubriplate makes decent greases but they are limited in application including thier high temp line. I use these where I want a wet grease with a lot of bleed out but will not use them in just any application. There are several other brand out there to choose from, all with quality products, some with products for very limited applications. Personally, I use all Mystik in all my equipment from electric motor bearings to steering joints to U-joints to front wheel bearings on my trucks, all with great results. The Mystik retains it's properties and you will find that you use less grease since it does not creep out as easily as most other brands will. Grease consumption at the coal mine went from seven 120 pound barrels a year of Texaco red down to four a year with the Mystik red yet there are two additional machines getting greased the same way as before. I highly suggest using mystik at the slightly higher cost if it is available to you and fits your applications. Mobile or Texaco would be my next best choices.
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