How Much Grease?

Anonymous Poster · Oct 21, 2001

How much, not how often, do you grease your tractor's zerk fittings?
My father used to grease old cars and tractors just until you could see some grease coming out. That meant the void was grease-packed, but it doesn't fully replace the old grease very often. That's like replacing two quarts of oil in your car engine twice as often as, and instead of, a complete oil change.

Right now I (1) wipe the fitting, (2) just pump until I see some old grease coming out and (3) wipe the old grease off.
Does anyone believe in pumping in more clean grease and forcing out more dirty grease? Annually? On oil change cycle?

My BX2200 has to last a LONG time. I'd rather spend $50-$100 on extra grease cartridges over the next ten years than be hit with a problem after I'm drawing my pension.

...thanks, Rich S.

RPM · Oct 21, 2001

I've thought about that for my BX2200 also.

The BX with Mid Mount Mower has 9 zerks that I know of.

1 on the pedal - doesn't take much grease so am not too worried

2 on the mid PTO shaft - not too worried there either as a few pumps would probably clear all the old grease out.

There are then 6 more zerks on the deck:

- 1 on the belt tension pivot
- 1 on the balance shaft

(Neither of the above take much grease either)

- 3 spindle shafts
- 1 belt tension pulley

All four of these seem to take a reasonable amount of grease.

So, having listed all of these -- I would say that the last four (spindle shafts and tension pulley) see the harshest conditions.

I plan on stripping these last four down as far as possible every other year and cleaning them out. I believe that the oil seal on the deck gearbox is also supposed to be changed every two years. I guess a good comparison would be the 30,000 mile service on a vehicle where the front-wheel bearings are sometimes re-packed.

Having said that - I haven't done it yet so don't know if it's even possible to entirely strip down that assembly! Until then I am being liberal with the grease and keeping the deck as free of dirt as I can.

Patrick

Phred · Oct 21, 2001

Rich,

I don't see how to much grease can hurt as long as you wipe off the old stuff so that it does not collect dirt.

fred

Bird · Oct 21, 2001

Rich, I still do it like your father did.

Bird

ronjhall · Oct 21, 2001

Patrick
<font color=blue>2 on the mid PTO shaft</font color=blue>
On my Mid PTO Shaft there is one on slide portion that connects 2 sections together. Need to keep this area clean and well greased.

JJT · Oct 21, 2001

Every zirc gets hit every 10 hours, I pump until I see grease.

RichNJ · Oct 22, 2001

I used to knowingly overgrease my MMM. It's old and the bearings for the spindles are no longer available. So I wanted to make sure that I got another 30 years out of it. However, I could not wipe off any excess grease easily due to the belt shields. The grease would ooze out of the bottom and top of the spindle. After a while I noticed the belt on the MMM was starting to slip. Took the shields off and saw grease all over the belt. Now I am a little more cautious with the grease gun.