SpudHauler
Gold Member
Was thinking the other day of an easy way to lube my dump box pins and door hinges on my RTV1100.
Machinists will laugh at this method and others will just giggle, but I think it still beats removing the pins or drilling and adding grease nipples. Or do as most have done, don't ever grease these because it's too much work.
Step 1: buy a grease gun adapter (under $5.00) used for pumping grease into seals or tight places.
Step 2: Drill a hole through the pivot just deep enough to touch the bolt or pin.
Step 3: Install grease adapter to grease gun, insert into newly drilled hole and pump in grease. Adapter is 1/16th in size and if drilled hole is 1/16th the fit is tight enough that I was seeing grease easing out booth ends of the pivot. Same thing happened on the door hinges, with grease oozing out of each end.
Now at each maintenance interval, I'll be sure to get both doors and box a dab of grease.
For the hydraulic pivot points, I'm planning on center drilling the pivot bolt half way and then cross drill to connect up to the cross drilled hole. Then drill and tap for proper grease nipples and apply grease.
By the way, on the doors I angled the 1/16th grease hole up on a 5 degree angle, approximately in the middle of the hinge. This will help prevent water from entering my grease holes. On the dump box pivots this is not easy to do so perhaps a bit of tape over the hole after the grease job would be sufficient. I'm not to worried as they are well protected anyway.
I doubt anyone has ever removed the pins and bolts for the dump box and greased the pivots as recommended. And with this method being so easy, it's now fun to do.
And reminder, 1/16th drill bits break very easily, so make sure you have several on hand and use a center punch to mark the spot so you don't get drill travel marks all over you paint job like I did.
Machinists will laugh at this method and others will just giggle, but I think it still beats removing the pins or drilling and adding grease nipples. Or do as most have done, don't ever grease these because it's too much work.
Step 1: buy a grease gun adapter (under $5.00) used for pumping grease into seals or tight places.
Step 2: Drill a hole through the pivot just deep enough to touch the bolt or pin.
Step 3: Install grease adapter to grease gun, insert into newly drilled hole and pump in grease. Adapter is 1/16th in size and if drilled hole is 1/16th the fit is tight enough that I was seeing grease easing out booth ends of the pivot. Same thing happened on the door hinges, with grease oozing out of each end.
Now at each maintenance interval, I'll be sure to get both doors and box a dab of grease.
For the hydraulic pivot points, I'm planning on center drilling the pivot bolt half way and then cross drill to connect up to the cross drilled hole. Then drill and tap for proper grease nipples and apply grease.
By the way, on the doors I angled the 1/16th grease hole up on a 5 degree angle, approximately in the middle of the hinge. This will help prevent water from entering my grease holes. On the dump box pivots this is not easy to do so perhaps a bit of tape over the hole after the grease job would be sufficient. I'm not to worried as they are well protected anyway.
I doubt anyone has ever removed the pins and bolts for the dump box and greased the pivots as recommended. And with this method being so easy, it's now fun to do.
And reminder, 1/16th drill bits break very easily, so make sure you have several on hand and use a center punch to mark the spot so you don't get drill travel marks all over you paint job like I did.