Gear Lube

[Walt H]

New guy here with a couple questions. I've got a 1715 4wd that I use to tow a rotary cutter (951B). Since mowing season is upon us, I thought I'd better check everything over. The gearbox on the mower seems to have grease in it, is it possible to run 90wt gear oil or do I have to spoon grease into it to fill it to the proper level?
Thanks, Walt

 

[DieselPower]

It is probably either NGLI #0 or #00 grease (semi-fluid grease). Many people put corn head grease in their mower gear box's when they start to leak. It lubricates just fine and does not leak out like gear oil does. It's actually a rather common practice and some come with semi-fluid grease as the factory fill.

 

[Opti-Mist]

An old time field fix for leaking seals was to pump the gearbox fairly full of grease gun grease. That's what has been in mine for some 10 years now.

 

[cdcole]

I had an old Ford 641 tractor. When the steering gear lost its oil - the previous owner kept using it dry. All bearings were destroyed but it never hurt the harder worm and ball gear - so I was able to rebuild it with some simple bearings from Berry Bearing. But....when I refilled it (after replacing the shaft seals) my dealer told me to use this really thick oil - almost like grease. It never leaked again even 10 years later and when I sold the tractor it still was not leaking. I think the other folks here in the forum are correct about filling a gearbox with this oil that is like grease - but not sure what it was called - I just put it in. They did tell me to only fill 2/3 of the way though because it needed room to flop around in there and also space for pressure to go. I ended up mixing the greasy stuff with some 80 weight gear lube but I would not do this without testing it or getting advice as I have heard of people doing this and getting like a foamy reaction in the box - in other words some oils and greases don't mix well.

 

[Soundguy]

Ditto that.. the 00 grease is decent stuff.

I have a 10' mower that specs 85/140 oil.. or the thin grease.

soundguy