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New Departure rear hub discs

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I've been using Lucas Red-n-tacky in a couple of ND hubs and so far everything is working fine. Used it for the entire hub - disks and bearings.

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Have you ever heard of Phil's Tenacious Oil, sold in bike shops? It's a viscous oil used by some mechanics for chains subjected to lots of wet conditions or to minimal maintenance (i.e. kids bikes). Before putting grease on my current discs, I tried the hub assembly with this Tenacious Oil. It also produced resistance that I wasn't expecting. In any case, before the weekend I'm going to pick up a bottle of Master Pro Gear Oil you recommend. Thanks for all the info!

I‘ve never used Phil’s Tenacious Oil but all the Phil Wood products are quality lubricants. I’d imagine it’s a lot like hypoid gear oil.

After reading that you tried just tenacious oil in the hub with no grease and it still produced resistance, I’m worried there may be something else going on. There will always be some drag since it’s a system that relies on friction to work and that friction can’t be completely eliminated, even while coasting but it shouldn’t be tons. Without spinning the wheel myself, it’s hard to tell if what you are experiencing is a normal amount of friction or not.

When I lift my rear tire and gently spin the wheel, it spins smoothly, but only for a single rotation or maybe two. It does not feel rough or sticky, but it doesn’t spin for hours like a super low friction bearing set, or even as long as my 1941 front WL hub. :)
 
After reading that you tried just tenacious oil in the hub with no grease and it still produced resistance, I’m worried there may be something else going on.
I didn't explain well. I used bicycle grease on bearings, races, cones etc, and only used the Tenacious Oil on the rings. I understand about some drag always being present, but with the current ND hub (using either Tenacious Oil or grease on the discs, and with noticeable play in the adjustment), I can't even hold the axle in my fingers and spin the wheel. I might be able to hold for a second or two, but the axle always winds up spinning in my fingers. Pretty strong resistance. The bearings/races are in good condition, installed properly and well greased. As mentioned, the discs are a NOS set from New Departure. Let's see what happens with the Gear Oil.
 
LUBE CONCLUSION: I tried three different strategies for lubricating the discs of my ND Model D hub, using a set of NOS ND discs....Park bicycle grease, Phil's Tenacious Oil and the MasterPro 85W-140 Gear Oil recommended by Miq above. The Gear Oil is lighter than Tenacious Oil and resulted in noticeably less resistance, as well as a lot less resistance than grease. Good to know. Thanks, Miq!
 
Hi all, just noticed my ND only has 16 discs (8 brass, 8 steel), about 0.7" stack. Recently acquired wheel, spins and brakes normally on the stand. Based on this thread info, sounds like I might have less braking power. Would there be other issues?
Thx!

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No, and in fact that is probably close enough.

1) New Departure changed the thickness and number of the discs at some point
2) They changed from bronze to steel at some point too.
3) Aftermarket companies made disc packs.
4) Discs from clones fit (Mattatuck, etc).
5) Clone packs are too thick so you don't put all of it in.
6) New Departure wanted you to change whole packs no matter what.
7) You could ignore their advice and add a disc if the pack is too thin.

You won't be able to make any sense of disc packs In my opinion. The stack should be about 0.75". Thickness mainly affects how far you have to pedal back before it starts braking. You can tune it with the pack thickness if you like within reason, especially since they made discs in different thicknesses at different times. You could add an extra no-tab disc of whatever thickness to get where you want to be. 0.75" pack thickness is default, but I don't think it is quite the hard limit. The only limit is if you put too much in it could drag or not release at all.
 
If I decide to add a disc, can I just use a thin machine washer. Since it's nonflanged disc missing, not really engaging the hub so all I need is space filler right?
 
@J-wagon I bet a steel washer of the right dimensions would work fine. The ND advertising makes it sound exotic. 🤩
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I'm guessing if a single disc, (2 friction surfaces) out of all the other ones, is slightly different (creates less friction), it's probably not going to be noticeable as far as stopping power. Maybe it will wear a little faster?? The center of it does engage the axle though as Bloo mentions.

I bet you can lock up the back wheel when you test it. 😎
 
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