How much side to side play in pivot points is too much?

[Wyld Bill]

I'm kind of a perfectionist about mechanical devices & probably over thinking this but,....
I just recently bought a Mahindra 2615 with a FEL.
I was greasing the pivot points tonight & noticed something I didn't like.
Why does it seem like on most FELs & other attachments there is way too much space between the part moving & the part on the outside of it.
You know you have two pieces of plate, a arm or whatever in it, there is a hole with a welded in bushing though both, then a pin through all of them. Why is there 1/2" to 1" of extra space?
Wouldn't it be a better design if it were only like a 1/8" gap with o-rings on the two ends. That way when you geased it the grease would be trapped in there instead of just pumping out all over the place & making a big mess. Just a thought.

 

[Botabill]

Pivot points can be the way you suggest. My excavator actually has rubber ballon type O rings around the ends of some of it's pivot points that swell to tighten the pivot point without letting any grease escape. My BX pivot joints are lower quality than the worst quality pivot points on my excavator. I think the biggest factors involved would be: How important having a perfect pivot/grease point is and how much customers are willing to pay for perfection. Also as can be expected these points wear so a hard used machine can get real loose. I haven't paid too much attention to this detail before but will in the future.

 

[tuolumne]

That really irks me on my JD 3520. I thought I needed to tighten the nuts a good bit, but all were already tightened to spec. The grease makes a huge mess. I would say I have an average of 1/8-1/4" on each side typcially. In all fairness to the designers, the loader has very little slop or side to side movement even with a maxed out load of 12' logs.

 

[Brimstone10x]

Most owners dont even have a grease gun. You only need one stroke from the grease gun and a good supply of rags. I service a lot of compacts and most havent been greased since their last full service witch is almost always way over do. Just costs to much to build them to industrial standards.

 

[Wyld Bill]

Well I'm going to do something about this. I think at the least I will stack up some washers to fill the space to within 1/8"
At the most I will make some sort of a gease "seal"

 

[Ken Cunningham]

Wouldnt the grease that oozes out help to keep out dirt?

 

[Shmudda]

Wouldnt the grease that oozes out help to keep out dirt?

It will push out dirt and water when it is greased, but then attracts the dirt once the gob of grease is hanging there.

Most people over grease their pivot pins anyways. They think you need to see grease ozzing out everywhere, but you really dont have to go that far with it.

Craig