How often to grease?

   / How often to grease? #21  
chrisjbell said:
Better to put too much grease on something than too little.

...

Untill you push a seal out and a bearing dies...

"just enough' is the right amount.. not too much..:D

soundguy
 
   / How often to grease? #22  
How do you tell if black grease is dirty?? Red and tacky I can see the dirt.!!!
 
   / How often to grease? #23  
Soundguy said:
Untill you push a seal out and a bearing dies...

"just enough' is the right amount.. not too much..:D

soundguy

So, what are you saying here? Just go very, very slow unitl a tinsy bit comes out or what?
 
   / How often to grease? #24  
saparks10 said:
There is no one answer for how often to grease. How often and how much depends on the application (load, environment, temperature, speed) I will say that over greasing is one of the most common reasons for bearring failure. Bearrings simply need friction to roll. When to much grease is used the bearring cannot role and sliding friction happens, versus the rolling friction. Anyone ever seen bearrings with flat spots on them?

I tend to agree with most of what you said. I have been told that over greasing is a bad thing . I think that one of the reasons is that the manufactures put a grease fitting on just about everything, even on spindles with sealed bearings. I would suggest that most people do not know what kind of bearing that is installed in the equipment, and think that more is better. How many of you have seen a bearing fail with grease bulging out all over. Some people even go so far as to punch holes in sealed bearings to put a needle injector in and give it a couple of squirts. A lot of people seem to forget that gobs of grease collect grit, and as the bearings turns, some of that grit is entering the bearing, and that good grease is now bad grease. How many of you have lost a grease cap off a trailer axle, and the only way you knew was from the smoke coming from the burnt bearing, or the hub with tire just came off. If you look on the Internet for types of bearings, and bearing failures, and over greasing, you will find lot of data.
 
   / How often to grease? #25  
curly said:
So, what are you saying here? Just go very, very slow unitl a tinsy bit comes out or what?
That's the genaral rule ?
 
   / How often to grease? #26  
Z-Michigan said:
This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I can see how a too-slippery lubricant might prevent roller or ball bearings from rolling, but frankly, if it's that slippery than what damage will be done by sliding without rolling? Also, most grease points on my tractor are in areas with plain bearings and not roller or ball bearings. There's nothing to roll in a plain bearing, and too much friction creates a spun bearing = instant pricey repair.

It doesn't make sense because it's a myth. The first place I heard this "theory" was many years ago when Harley mechanics were blaming their crank bearing failures on synthetic oil, claiming it was "too slippery for the bearings." Of course it ended up being just low quality bearings in the low quality engines they were working with but the myth remained.

Fact is, if there's so little load and friction for a bearing to roll, there's too little of each to do any damage.

The "just touching on a single point" addition to this myth we've seen in this thread to explain further is also not possible. Quality bearings are ground to such precision tolerances that if "a single point" is touching the whole roller or ball is touching. The only way that couldn't happen is if the bearing was such poor quality it wasn't round in the first place.
 
   / How often to grease? #27  
J_J said:
bearing that is installed in the equipment, and think that more is better. How many of you have seen a bearing fail with grease bulging out all over. .


I cant say that I have ever seen one fail from too much grease

I'd be willing to admit that I've seen em fail because they were never greased

also be willing to admit that I've seen them fail because somebody blew out the grease seal which allowed foreign material to do its thing, but I just cant say I've ever seen a bearing fail because it had too much lubricant.
 
   / How often to grease? #28  
D7E said:
That's the genaral rule ?


that aint the general rule, there is no general rule, for instance universal joints in need to be greased unti the old stuff is purged from the trunnion as evidenced by clean grease coming from all four seals
 
   / How often to grease? #29  
KICK said:
that aint the general rule, there is no general rule, for instance universal joints in need to be greased unti the old stuff is purged from the trunnion as evidenced by clean grease coming from all four seals

How about this, go very very slowly until a tinsey bit of clean grease comes out...then you know you've pushed all the dirty stuff out.

When this thread was started the original poster stated that he had 48 grease fittings and I figured I prolly had somewhere in that area, so I bgt an air grease gun...don't want carpel tunnel ya know:eek: . Now I got my service manual and it looks like I only have about 9...so I'm a happier camper. I can go slower on 9 than I could on 48 :D
 
   / How often to grease? #30  
JSharp said:
It doesn't make sense because it's a myth. The first place I heard this "theory" was many years ago when Harley mechanics were blaming their crank bearing failures on synthetic oil, claiming it was "too slippery for the bearings." Of course it ended up being just low quality bearings in the low quality engines they were working with but the myth remained.

Fact is, if there's so little load and friction for a bearing to roll, there's too little of each to do any damage.

The "just touching on a single point" addition to this myth we've seen in this thread to explain further is also not possible. Quality bearings are ground to such precision tolerances that if "a single point" is touching the whole roller or ball is touching. The only way that couldn't happen is if the bearing was such poor quality it wasn't round in the first place.

Well, if it is a myth, then it is a myth that my cousin (by marriage) believes as well. So, why would that be relevant? He is the Quality control engineer and testing branch supervisor for INA / FAG bearings in Germany.

That said, when he took me on the tour of the testing and R & D department, we discussed it at length, and like so many other things the real answer is "it depends"

One of the particular questions I had for him, and we discussed in detail, is our practice of taking the seals off the bearings on our dirt bikes, and packing the bearing plumb full of grease and then popping the seals back in.

We do this, in the thought that it is better to have it plumb full of grease, then to have the customary amount of void or airspace in the bearings.

He then brought up the sliding of the rollers, explained that the type bearings we were using were "stock" or "catalouge" bearings made to fit a wide range of uses and for our particular application it was probably a wise choice. We were probably more likely to experience bearing failure from dirt, crud and water then from the bearing sliding instead of smoothly rolling.

He then went on to point out that those bearings were originally intended for high speed electric motor applications where that small, precisely measured amount of grease was determined to give them their best life for their average expected use.

Then he took me into the room where they were currently running tests to determine optimum lubes, rates, etc. etc. of running bearing's to failure.

So, is it a myth, not in my opinion. Does someone take something out of context and apply it where it should not have, happens often, and as I often say at work, why is it so hard to get out good information while bad information can spread like wildfire.

In the FWIW category, I doubt seriously you could overlube any bearings found on my ag or construction equipment.

I am in the lube it till it comes out, wipe off gross excess yet leave some to form a sheild on open bearings / pivot pins, and on closed or sealed area's try and put a very small amount in till you believe it has recieved grease and not so much as to break the seal.
 

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

2016 Ford F550 4x4 Bucket Truck with Altec AT41 - 46FT Rotating Bucket and Jib Winch (A51039)
2016 Ford F550 4x4...
2016 CATERPILLAR 259D SKID STEER (A50458)
2016 CATERPILLAR...
2015 Top Hat T/A 20 ft. Gooseneck Trailer (A50860)
2015 Top Hat T/A...
2007 INTERNATIONAL 4200 SBA 4X2 DUMP TRUCK (A50459)
2007 INTERNATIONAL...
2022 Kawasaki Z125 Pro Motorcycle (A48082)
2022 Kawasaki Z125...
Vermeer SC802 (A50322)
Vermeer SC802 (A50322)
 
Top