Lube for brush hog gear box

[willfick]

I recently found an old mower for my Farmall H to pull. The serial number on the ID tag is stamped and still plain to see, but all the other info must have been painted and is long gone. The gearbox has a logo with "SMF" and either a model number or, more likely, the part number for the box "A5-6446."
What I can see in the gearbox appears to be a good quantity of black grease. What ever it is must be doing a good job; the gear box turns freely with no perceptible looseness, vibration, or backlash. I'm open to suggestions on what's the right sort of lube to use - grease? gear oil?
Does everybody use the same stuff, or is there wild variation?
All suggestions happily received.
Thanks, Wm

 

[kenmac]

I use 80w-90

 

[thatguy]

if it has grease in it I would keep using grease.. I bet somewhere along the lines it was leaking gear oil and that is why it ended up with grease..

Brian

 

[daman1]

Not familiar with that mower but seals were probably long gone burn out and replaced with grease,not necessary a bad thing if grease is going to be your number one lube try out John Deers corn head grease, it's a low viscosity NLGI grade 0 and would work perfectly in this application.



good stuff check out the vid.....


https://jdparts.deere.com/partsmkt/document/english/featbene/flashdata/JESCOCornHeadGreaseVideo.wmv

 

[jrschremser]

My Brown 460 rotary cutter started leaking the gear oil last year. After researching my options I found it best to change over to the JD corn head grease. What really sold me was when the Brown people said they now use it exclusively in all their cutters. It's been in there for about a year, under heavy useage and no leaks. I think I paid $6.00 for about two quarts. Take a clean bucket with you since it generally isn't sold in small containers. I was cautioned to be sure to remove all the old gear oil since the two aren't compatable.

 

[willfick]

Thanks y'all. The consensus here matches what I heard over on YTMAG. I'll be going to St Matthews tomorrow to work on my sister's bh's deck and rear wheel; I'll stop by her JD dealer and pick up some corn head grease.
Good luck, Wm

 

[alvanko]

For what it's worth, I got the JD cornhead grease in grease gun tubes. I use in all of my mower deck spindles. (I sill use gear lube in the brush cutter). No problems at all with the decks.