Wonder if graphite lube would help coupler ball operation, doubt labelle or oil based lube is a good idea, may dry out.
I believe Sergent Engineering recommends only powdered graphite. Any type of oil would tend to cause the tiny ball inside the coupler to stick in position.
Steamed up,
I have been a user of Sergents for 3 years now after using Kadees for over 30 years (Yikes how time flies! [:S]). Do not add any liquid lub to these couplers. The tiny ball bearing at the heart of the locking mechanism will get stuck with any oil, no matter how sparing you add it.
As suggested by Frank Sergent and referred to by the other poster, I use a soft lead pencil to “paint on” graphite on the mating surfaces and in the mouth of the coupler. I mate a coupler that is also painted with lead and rub up and down to burnish all mating surfaces. Next I flip the pair over and work on making sure the knuckles open and close freely. This is all covered in the break-in procedure written up by Sergent.
I have other tricks for assembly if your are making your own that I can tell you about, but for now just wanted to answer your question.
In another thread titled “couplers” I posted a variety of uncoupling tools to get 100% efficiency uncoupling Sergents. You can do a thread seach (I posted Feb 9 if I remember right).
Joel
The ball in the Sergent coupler doesn’t need any lubrication at all. The assembly instructions do say to burnish the hole in which the ball falls into with a toothpick so that any flash from the casting process can be removed. I put graphite (used a pencil) in the ball bearing hole and it prevented the ball from dropping all the way in the hole. This made the knuckle not close all the way and I had to undo the coupler, clean the ball bearing area, and re-assemble it. You only need lubrication (dry graphite) on the knuckle hinge and knuckle (front and back). I would not recommend adding any “wet” type lubricants.
thanks for the tips