Is it Possible to Overlubricate a Manual Ratchet?

[YoshiMoshi]

TL;DR Summary

Is it Possible to Overlubricate a Manual Ratchet?

Is it possible to overlubricate a manual ratchet that you operate by hand? I'd imagine if you tried really really hard, you can add so much grease, that it would be so dense, that you couldn't rotate the ratchet, or if you used very thick grease that is like a block of cheese. Or that when you attempted to rotate the ratchet, the teeth of the gear couldn't interlock with the pawl because so much grease is in the way, or possibly skipping teeth.

I tried to stuff a lot of grease into a ratchet to see what would happen, and upon reassembly, excess grease was displaced. I could rotate the ratchet very freely, and it was very quiet.

So it got me thinking, is it really possible to overlubricate a manual ratchet that you operate by hand? If so why/how?

I know bearings that for example are on a pulley on the front of an engine, you could overlubricate those because they spin at a high rpm. But a manual ratchet that you rotate by hand, probably even won't see a full rotation at one time.

 

[hutchphd]

I would say it is absolutely impossible possible to overlubricate a manual ratchet. Drowning the operator in lubricant would go down as operator error, but gumming up the works is a problem.

 

[Baluncore]

There needs to be somewhere for thick grease to go when it is no longer fluid. Imagine what will happen when all that grease dries out and becomes thick. Then the ratchet pawl will fail to engage, and you will realise that "too much" of anything is bad by definition.

 

[Lnewqban]

Not possible.
Just imagine a closed container full of liquid and containing several marbles that are free to move around.
Even when changing shape and positions, the volume of the liquid and the solids remain the same within the fixed volume of the closed container.

Consider that the lubricant is only effective in form of a very thin film in contact with the metal surfaces.
Even when sufficinet in quantity, that film can deteriorate due to high pressure or temperature, as well as too high or too low relative velocity between the surfaces, or contamination with water or dirt, or chemical degradation with age.

 

[Ranger Mike]

YES! absolutely. If you have too much grease in a hostile environment, you will not be able to use the ratchet.
check out extreme cold environment lubrication, with operating temperatures from -70C to 115C (-94F to 239F)
https://www.nanoslicklubricants.com/product/t-60-arctic-lubricant/

 

[sophiecentaur]

Excess grease can attract dirt and clog a fine ratchet so much that the pawl doesn't engage. Car handbrake levers can accumulate a lot of dirt which can wear the teeth down and the swarf can fill the notches.
Grease is odd stuff. When you fill a casing with grease, most of the grease just stays there and never gets between two rubbing surfaces.
"More is better" is a bad mantra which accounts for many burst seals on steering and suspension joints as guys pump pump pump away.

 

[hutchphd]

I was being provocative (perhaps facetious).. I thought it was an odd question! (Yes?) I guess it makes sense to pack a wheel bearing with grease as a measure to exclude detritis and FOD and ensure more lubricant. A ratchet is less likely to care and if one is in a liquid nitrogen environment, frozen grease could be a real issue. I guess some intricate "centrfugal force/speed sensitive" ratchet/clutches could become very unhappy with too much grease. So I retract my definitive "no'' and replace it with a vehement "maybe" and have revised #2