grease in a rotary cutter gear box?

[IndyJay]

I have hundreds of hours on cutters with cornhead grease in them. It works great and does not leak through the seal. I have had to replace gearboxes with gearbox grease, but not with cornhead grease.

Would the same be true with 3ph post hole auger?

 

[John0829]

Would the same be true with 3ph post hole auger?

Absolutely

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I have hundreds of hours on cutters with cornhead grease in them. It works great and does not leak through the seal. I have had to replace gearboxes with gearbox grease, but not with cornhead grease.

Thanks for your real world experiences.

With getting ready for hay coming today and tomorrow I had hold on bush hog gear box lube concerns but did find some OO weight gear lube at Tractor Supply Company at $5.99 a quart and dumped a quart the leaking master gear box and spun it up for a few minutes and liked how it looked.

I am going to this TSC OO option before I lose another gear box to a seal failure that I didn't catch. Changing out gear boxes gets harder with age in my case.

 

[5030]

Lady coming to trim some hoofs

Hoof trimmings are dandy dog treats. Dog's love them.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Hoof trimmings are dandy dog treats. Dog's love them.

Cool I haven't cleaned that area yet.

 

[5030]

Cool I haven't cleaned that area yet.

When my wife raised draft horses (not now), hoof trimming were quite large and the pup would wait patiently for them. Much better than the commercially available stuff that a lot come from offshore.

Long gone, no horses and no cattle any more here.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

More lube thoughts.

Can You Replace Oil with Grease?

When an equipment manufacturer recommends an oil for a gearbox, the lubricant typically is selected based on the operating conditions, including speed, temperature and gear type. Oil may be ...

www.machinerylubrication.com

 

[Ishkatan]

How can I tell what seal to order for my 3 point post hole auger gear box?

The only name or number on the gear box is in white paint "20430" and the plastic drive shaft guard says "via Guido Rosse 10 Pegognanga (MN) Italy". I bought it somewhat new 28 years ago ($250 but when I wore out the teeth on the auger TSC did not have matching teeth. I made some adaptations. The shaft is 1.5 inches in diameter, has an adapter to take a 2" auger. The seal appears to be about 2 1/4" in diameter where it seats and the hole it seals is 1 3/4". i.e to take it out a 1 3/4" washer fills the space from the bottom and barely covers the metal rim part while Rubber fills the space to the shaft. The only way to take out the seal is to push from the auger side since it sits in a little depression.

I think I bent the metal part. Though it looks fine, when I put in oil it pours out. I screwed up by opening the gear case and moving the shaft when I should have been looking at the sheer bolts ...

If I do get a new seal, how do I seat it without damaging it? It is a very tight fit metal to metal.

In the mean time, I am off for new sheer bolts, auger bolts (the bent!!!), zerk and 00 oil from TSC.

 

[bindian]

I would do an online search for that name and number

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I would pull it and have it matched up at NAPA or similar place.

SR

 

[Ishkatan]

I would do an online search for that name and number

Didn't have a name to search on and a number is meaningless to google... but... turns out the "via Guido Rosse 10..." is an address that Google maps can find in Italy and street view shows me Comer Industries. Turns out they make tractor and heavy machinery shafts and gearboxes and other stuff... but nothing like my post hole digger gearbox. I suspect they no longer make that particular product.

Granger seems to have seals with about the right dimensions. I am going to use regular grease on the bottom and then fill it with 2 bottles of 00 Grease I picked up today from TSC. Get my holes dug before messing with the seal. Now that I know how this is put together I can pull the seal during the winter and worry about running back and forth to find the right size when I don't need it.

Lesson learned - check the sheer pins first. Just because it turns under no or little load but slips when digging does not mean the gears broke teeth.... it means the sheer bolts have jagged edges and are catching a little. Sadly, slip clutches are expensive so replacing the basic setup is going to wait, though it may be necessary given that I now have a more powerful tractor (RK37HC).

 

[bindian]

Search numerous different combinations,....like Italy 3ph auger post hole digger. Be creative.

Can you contact the party you bought it from?

If all this fails, you will have to take the seal out and try to find a match with other brand of augers. It will be a time consuming search in person with the seal in hand.

Contact Comer Industries and ask them.

 

[Williy]

Can you get some gasket material and with a ball peen hammer make one?

willy

 

[Ishkatan]

Search numerous different combinations,....like Italy 3ph auger post hole digger. Be creative.

Can you contact the party you bought it from?

If all this fails, you will have to take the seal out and try to find a match with other brand of augers. It will be a time consuming search in person with the seal in hand.

Contact Comer Industries and ask them.

The place I bought it from is long gone. I am going to try the grease rout for now and make the seal search a winter project. I think Granger may have a match.

I've also wondered about using one of those "stop oil leak" products they sell for cars but I think it would only be a temporary solution.

I found you also have to consider the thickness of the seal!!!! This is fun reading: https://www.parker.com/content/dam/Parker-com/Literature/Engineered-Polymer-Systems/5350.pdf

 

[Ishkatan]

Can you get some gasket material and with a ball peen hammer make one?

willy

That is way beyond my skill set, though an interesting idea if nothing else works. They use packing on boat propeller shafts, but it has to be adjusted regularly and this does not have that option.

 

[YanmarFever]

I have a leaky Howse finish mower that I have changed the bottom seal 3x now.
This time Im putting the corn head grease in the gear box, Im tired of fussing with it.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I have a leaky Howse finish mower that I have changed the bottom seal 3x now.
This time Im putting the corn head grease in the gear box, Im tired of fussing with it.

Did you check to see if the bottom bearing isn't going out? That would make it eat seals.

SR

 

[YanmarFever]

Rob, I will check that out first and see if its the bearing, before I put the grease in,
Thanks for the reminder!

 

[LouNY]

I have used "corn head" grease or a blend of grease and gear lube in old gearboxs for years when they had minor leaks. Some got repaired after the season of use some have been working that way for decades.

 

[2manyrocks]

Some seals have the dimensions on them which allows a search by those dimensions. Had one rotary seal to go out on an old cutter that I was able to match by reading user comments on Amazon. Hydraulic shops are also pretty good at measuring old seals.