How much grease?

[Mark Page]

How do you know how much grease to pump into a fitting. Wheel bearings are easy because you can see it come out the rear seal, but things like mower spindles there is no way to tell. I've settled on 5 pumps for the mower and I've never burned up a bearing.

 

[IslandTractor]

My rule of thumb: three pumps.

More accurate: look at the joint where the pin bridges the two parts: pump until you see a bit of grease come out.

 

[shortthrow50]

My rule of thumb: three pumps.

More accurate: look at the joint where the pin bridges the two parts: pump until you see a bit of grease come out.

I agree with this guy. Soon as you see the first sight of any tiny bit of grase come out, stop! Some times it takes a bit more than 3 pumps if your running dry but if you keep up with the recommended hours of grease servicing, you should be good with a few pumps

 

[yandeereguy]

just go with the good ol' grease it until the entire machine is covered in it then in 10 years you can wipe it all off and she'll be looking good as new

 

[buck12]

I think my John Deere owners manual states two pumps for each spindle.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I greased my new ZTR mower till grease came out the top. It took about 100 pumps with my Pneumatic gun. Shaft was totally dry I suppose. I wanted to make sure I got grease to the upper an lower bearing. Any excess with be expelled when running. Excess grease in electric motor bearing will make them run hot which might to be good for the windings but I dont think that would be an issue on spindles on a mower. I would rather over grease than under grease. MY old JD 332 has sealed bearings that are still going good. I dont know the year but it was only made from 1987 - 1992 so I guess a little grease goes a long way on those spindles as long as you keep the water out of them. I have heard that the worst thing you can do to a lawnmower deck is hose it off when finished (guilty as charged). I do like to let them cool a bit first then blow off the grass. I usually have to wash off some mud from going to close to the ponds and ditches. Best way to clean them is with a leaf blower if you just have grass clippings and that way no danger of contaminating the bearings with water.

 

[IslandTractor]

I greased my new ZTR mower till grease came out the top. It took about 100 pumps with my Pneumatic gun. Shaft was totally dry I suppose. I wanted to make sure I got grease to the upper an lower bearing. Any excess with be expelled when running. Excess grease in electric motor bearing will make them run hot which might to be good for the windings .

That is rather bizarre. 100 pumps is at least half a tube of grease. Never heard of a zerk, even with a totally dry shaft requiring anything close to that. My concern would be for a bearing with a diaphragm to contain grease. Over greasing would damage it. Hard to imagine anyone engineering a set of bearings to require such a huge bolus of grease.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Yep, took me a tube and a half to grease the whole lawnmower and most of it went in the 3 spindles. I even stopped and looked top and bottom of the deck to make sure it wasnt pumping out somewhere, but it eventually popped out on the top of the spindle shaft. I was looking an brother in law was pulling the trigger. Evidently that Craftsman spindle housing is pretty large and hollow.
That was the first time I had greased it since I owned it in 2 years. First year I mowed about 30 minutes with it is all, due to the drought I didnt have to mow the whole year. Last year burned about 2 tanks of gas all year. This year it has been getting some use, so figured better take a look at all the places that might need grease other than the front wheels.
I guess they just packed a little grease on the bearings when they installed them. With the zerk in the middle of the housing, I dont know how you would know if grease was reaching the top bearing unless you pumped till grease popped out.

 

[Texasmark]

On spindle grease. I have had both spindles with sealed bearings and spindles with a zerk. If you dismantle the latter, the sealed bearing is only sealed on the outer side allowing grease inside to get into the bearing.

I'm assuming that designers that don't pack the spindle expect centrifugal force to press the grease against the outer housing of the spindle whereby it will be forced along that surface making it's way to the bearings. I have had several that way so I guess that is how they work. We're talking about a hollow cylinder here with a ball bearing mounted in both ends and the spindle shaft routed through the bearings.

On new seals, sometimes you can't even get one pump, if the tolerances are tight. The thing has to wear some before it will take grease.

On other new seals, you can get on it and one pump is easy and then you get the resistance spike which is where I stop.

On things like tie rod ends, with rubber boots, I grease till you see the boot start to move; starts pooching on road vehicles, and starts to lift on farm equip.

On everything else I grease till you see it. On tractor front end spindles where you have bushings against the spindle it can still take 10 or so pumps to see grease and I stop when either end shows it. Usually it's the top, if the lower seal is intact.

On the JD manual and 2 pumps, you really only need one molecule of grease to separate metal parts and if you want to know how small one molecule is, take one drop of motor oil and drop in on your pond. It will spread out till it's one molecule high....amazing. So in that sense it seems adequate. But for me, I want to ensure I get it all covered and I want some reserve so that when pressure is encountered, I have several to replace the ones squeezed out.

This philosophy has worked for me for the 55 or so years I have been dinkering around machinery.

HTH,

Mark

 

[pacerron]

My 8 ft mower with 3 blade shaft spindles calls for 3 pumps to each zerk.
I think the real danger of over greasing would be getting grease on the
10 foot double B belt causing slipping or burning.