Filling your gearbox with grease

[RobJ]

This came up in another thread and I was curious how many people do this with modern equipment. RC, FM, etc. Mine still has 90w but I haven't touched it in years. No leaks no problems. I should probably check it this weekend.

Rob

 

[BTackett]

I messed with the old Gravely 2 wheel tractors and it said to use 140w gear lube and you cannot find it any longer. I drained everything and filled with grease and used them for years . Lubrimatic makes gear lube for boat motors and bearing grease I believe still sells / makes 140w gear oil in qts but it is very hard to find a store that sells it.

Bill

 

[JerryK]

This came up in another thread and I was curious how many people do this with modern equipment. RC, FM, etc. Mine still has 90w but I haven't touched it in years. No leaks no problems. I should probably check it this weekend.

Rob

i had an older rototiller that had a leaky two piece pressed metal drivecase, with an enclosed chain between the tiller shaft and the drive pulley shaft. I installed a zerk in the upper area of the case, and pumped the cavity full of about 4 tubes of cheap grease. It ran for years after that, with no problem.
I don't think I would use grease on a normal gearbox. I usually drain the old petrol based gearbox oil, and then fill with Mobile 1 90W. But I wouldn't put the expensive stuff into one that leaks.

 

[zionview]

We use a 50-50 mix of non-detergent engine oil and #2 lithium grease for old gearboxes-been doing it for years and haven't had a failure yet.

 

[Glowplug]

You can use a flowable grease such as a #00. It has the consistency of a slime. My Rhino 10' cutter has it in all 3 gear boxes.

 

[HayDR]

You can use a flowable grease such as a #00. It has the consistency of a slime. My Rhino 10' cutter has it in all 3 gear boxes.

Make sure you use EP-00. The EP designation matters.

 

[HappyCPE]

I run grease in my old 6' brush cutter. Works fine for the last 3 years. Then again, the machine came free with the farm... I wouldn't do that with anything that I actually had money invested in.

 

[DrRick]

John deere "corn head grease" works very well .
rick

 

[Kays Supply]

When I messed with the Grey Market tractors, some of the importers put Lucas additive ,full stength, in the front ends to replace 90 wt. It would make a grease slick around the joint but would stay in pretty good. I have a friend that has a mower that the gear box gets so hot you didn't want to touch it. It finally blew the seal out. He got a vent for the top and filled it with Lucas. It has done great since.

 

[HayDR]

When I messed with the Grey Market tractors, some of the importers put Lucas additive, full strength, in the front ends to replace 90 wt. It would make a grease slick around the joint but would stay in pretty good. I have a friend that has a mower that the gear box gets so hot you didn't want to touch it. It finally blew the seal out. He got a vent for the top and filled it with Lucas. It has done great since.

A plugged vent will cause a gearbox to heat up and cause oil to be pushed by a seal.

 

[john_bud]

Switching to grease is a "trick" done when a seal blows and you still want to use the equipment. Not the choice of a purist as the seals should be fixed. But, on old equipment some seals are hard to find, expensive or both. Old Ford steering gear boxes are ones that wind up with grease often for that reason. Corn head grease is one of the ones used.

 

[Soundguy]

Many people will use that cornhead grease in old steering gear boxes too.

I have an older mower that specs 140w oil or 00# grease.. etc. i usually use the heavy oil , and a couple shots of grease to make it thik-n-sticky..

soundguy