Cosmo 500, Gear Box Lube?

[OkieG]

Just picked up a Cosmo 500 fertilizer spreader from TSC today. The manual is a bit sketchy for me, concerning lubing the gearbox. There is a grease zerk. Do I fill the gearbox with a grease gun? That's kinda what it looks like, but I'm just not quite sure. It'll probably take about a full cylinder of grease. Does that sound right?

Thanks,

OkieG

 

[dieseldoc]

okie,i filled mine the first time i used it, then pump a small amount in it after i use it.

 

[Andrea]

that's right. grease is already inside. use the nipple to fill it sometimes.

 

[Soundguy]

Remember that lots of grease guns will pump oil as well.

Soundguy

 

[OkieG]

<font color="blue">Remember that lots of grease guns will pump oil as well.
</font>
Soundguy,
Yeah, some liquid lube was what I was thinking. I have seen housings packed with grease, that gets thrown to the housing wall by a spinning bearing, which then operates in a little cavity with no grease at all. At least, that's what I envision. A little liquid gear oil would prevent that.

I may be breaking down the spreader for some preventative corrosion control. I'd be curious to open the gearbox and see how well the grease is working.

OkieG

 

[HayDR]

The is a link to a good source of information on Grease.
Characteristics and grades of grease

 

[Soundguy]

If I did go back to grease.. I'd go with a 0# greas, like a JD cornhead grease.. not a #2 or #4 like you can normally buy on store shelf. A 0# grease will actually flow back into the sump... some combines use that grease in the angle drive heads. Doesn't make a cavity like a regular grease does.

Soundguy

 

[OkieG]

Mark,
Thanks for the link.

OkieG

 

[OkieG]

Soundguy,
The manual says, "Periodically check for oil level in the transmission box and top up as necessary (grease to be SAE90 viscosity). Oil change in the transmission box is to be made every year."

So, which is it.....oil or grease?? The chart Mark kindly referenced in his post lists grease by grade, not weight. I think our foreign friend translating the English part of the manual meant to say 90 weight oil, not grease. After all, most gear boxes use gear oil, not grease, right??

Your comment, "Remember that lots of grease guns will pump oil as well." got me thinking. I've only used grease zerks for grease, but maybe my scope of experience is too limited. The manual is ambiguous, but leans toward using oil, in my opinion. The zerk threw me off, though.

Anyway, after several squirts of grease, and rethinking what I was trying to lubricate, I switched over to John Deere 80-140W gear oil. I got about 4 or 5 squeeze bulbs full (probably half a pint) in, after removing the zerk, even with the grease in there.

Perhaps, the zerk hole is supposed to serve as the fill line.

All in all, I feel much better having good gear oil in the "transmission box" instead of just several squirts of grease.

OkieG

 

[OkieG]

Andrea,
The transmission box halves are bolted and appear to be sealed with silicone on the mating surfaces, instead of using a gasket. Since the housing was sealed, I didn't open it up as I had originally planned. So, I can't tell for sure whether the unit came with any grease in it or not. But, it had plenty of room for several squirts of grease and half a pint of gear oil before being full.

OkieG