Dirt Moving proper care with grease

[frogpond]

I do like to clean off the excess grease each time--at least the major globs and crusts. Two reasons: When you wash the tractor with a hose, if there's a lot of grease, it gets spread around on every surface, and then on me. Secondly, it conceals problems. A few months ago, I discovered that the pin connecting the loader arm to the bucket had broken and half of it was missing. Grease had replaced the missing piece of steel, and formed a nice crust when mixed with dirt, thus mimicking the missing piece. You couldn't see the problem until it was cleaned.

 

[GeneV]

I never power wash, well actually, I don't even regular wash my tractors...usually I just scrape off dried dirt, that's about it. I do store my tractors indoors though. As for greasing, I always wipe the top of the zerk off before greasing. I use a lock n lube. I hit the lube only until I could see some grease start to creep out of the joint, usually that's old grease. I leave that alone unless there's a whole goop hanging there, I'll wipe that off.

 

[MikeR 2018]

Hello,
I have read(and practice) cleaning zerk points before greasing my tractor. As a person new to tractors, do you clean the joints where the grease exits as well? Does the old grease protect the joint, or act like a scouring agent since it is dirty? I bought my Case 45 used and in this condition, see attached photos. I use it in a very fine dirt environment leveling roads and moving dirt. I never cleaned the old grease because the prior owner hadn't. I have attached pictures for clarity. I am doing the maintenance of blowing out air filters, checking oil etc. in the manual, but I can't find any info about how clean to keep things that are habitually dirty.

thank you,
AnnetteView attachment 658117View attachment 658118

After staining a couple shirts by brushing up against a zerk, I now wipe all exposed surfaces clean. I don't mind soil-dirt but I hate grease stains.