OutbackL130
Silver Member
I just finished replacing the steering shaft bushings, sector and pinion gear on my L130. Do you grease these bushings and gears? If so which kind works best?
Grease sector, pinion gear and steering shaft bushings?
- Thread starter OutbackL130
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OutbackL130
Silver Member
Anybody know??
RandyT
Elite Member
That is a questions that has been debated for years. It seems that grease would help prevent wear, but has a tendency to collect dirt and dust, which then turns into an abrasive which would increase wear. There is no right or wrong answer to the question.
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OutbackL130
Silver Member
Thanks! I thought I remembered years ago somebody telling me the grease would just attract dirt. I called JD earlier today and they basically said the same as you. I decided not to grease since everything is new and it worked great mowing 3 hours today.
Well, I sure wish they would make them easier to disassemble...
If you could just get oil in there when they do get rusted from being left in the rain or washed too often.
They need a small oil reservoir to fill with WD-40 and let it soak in.
I agree that the steering is easier with new dry bushings. But when I take one apart I have to put something in there like white lithium grease. If I could just keep some water out.
I am working on an LX188 right now and the main wafer gear is rusted stuck onto the splines of the shaft coming up from the bottom.
The bushing inside there are tight but the shaft is still hard to turn.
I wish someone would tell me the trick to getting this off without busting that $70 support frame...
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OutbackL130
Silver Member
What do you guys think about the new plastic bushings, will they hold up? My 2003 JD L130 had the original bushings still in it which were made of metal. They lasted almost 600 hours but eventually wore out and let the pinion and sector gears not mesh right which tore the gears up. My new steering shaft bushings from John Deere are plastic and I was wondering how durable they will be?
It's not so much the cost of buying new bushings when they wear out, it's that changing them really is a pain to do. I hope the plastic ones will be good for another 600 hours.
It's not so much the cost of buying new bushings when they wear out, it's that changing them really is a pain to do. I hope the plastic ones will be good for another 600 hours.
I wonder if they are putting the plastic ones on new mowers?
I suspect they are made of something better than just "plastic" but I would consider them inferior to the bronze.
I do not know exactly what JD uses but I suspect they are some sort of "oil impregnated bronze" maybe.
Look at this...
McMaster-Carr
I recently worked on one of those $89 utility carts and the shaft bearings are mode of some kind of plastic similar to these.