Can you have to much grease?

[Learning to Farm]

So, I decided to give the Bota a bath today. I can only stand so much dirt. Well I finally got 50 hours of tractor time so I decided to grease the zerks. What I found when I started poking around, was someone was very liberal with the grease before, had to scoop it out to find zerks! I removed total a softball (not telling a tall tale) of grease from the FEL. It had dirt and hay in it. It looked like it had squished out by the tablespoons. Ok, two questions can there be too much grease? And how do I clean it from the paint (it is smeared everywhere)?

[moored4]

I would say generally no but with this qualifier! You want to purge all the bad looking grease from any greased joint or bearing. When new grease appears then that is enough. Now if it has a seal and the seal is installed in such a way that it is keeping the grease in and then if you apply to much pressure then you could blow the seal. If the seal is installed to allow the grease to purge, then you can slowly fill the cavity with new grease. A bearing or gearbox that is completely full of grease will run hotter than they normally should be.

A little fule on a shop rag will remove it!

[Wolfy]

I usually pump the grease until it starts to flow out of the pin. Anymore just seems to be wasteful. A strong household cleaner might remove the smeared grease. When all else fails, I resort to using a spray carburator cleaner and plenty of rags to clean things.

[JCByrd24]

Brake parts cleaner (maybe similar to carb, I'm young enough never to have owned a carburated vehicle) is what I've found to be the best for grease. Your case is similar to mine when buying a used tractor, absolutely too much grease everywhere on the FEL, nothing but a greasy mess everywhere, couldn't tell how well the pins were greased.

[Learning to Farm]

So moored4, it looks like they never cleaned the purged grease up.

[Clint S]

I usually pump the grease until it starts to flow out of the pin. Anymore just seems to be wasteful. A strong household cleaner might remove the smeared grease. When all else fails, I resort to using a spray carburator cleaner and plenty of rags to clean things.

Carb cleaner is very caustic to certain plastics rubber, stickers, decals and sometimes paint. Use some brake clean or some fuel like mentioned above

[Wolfy]

I'm with you there Clint. I don't like using it if I don't have to. Never thought of using brake cleaner.

[whistlepig]

Too much grease is better than not enough except to the point it slings on the belts and ruins them. I have always used Mineral Spirits for removing grease. It works very well and have never had any paint damage from it. This is sold at some stores as paint thinner. Just make sure to read the can before buying paint thinner. It must be Mineral Spirits. There are some paint thinners that will harm the paint.

[Cat_Driver]

Actually yes, too much grease ends up on the ground. Best you have the right amount of grease. get the old grease out and new grease in without a glob falling on the ground.

Now if the question can you grease too ofter...I would say no, as long as grease isn't dropping out all over the place.

[k0ua]

Kubota calls for greasing the loader at every 10 hours, so I do that or sometimes a few hours less, Yes just grease until the grease starts to come out, wipe up the old, with a rag, Be careful with the solvents, some will take the paint right off. Bug and tar remover wont hurt most paints, (Xylene) dont know about decals, might remove them. I mostly just remove grease with rags. progressing to cleaner ones when they get "loaded". I probably overgrease, because there is meter time that the loader is not in use, but It dont hurt anything.

James K0UA