NX4510 FRONT AXLE PIVOT JOINT FRONT SEAL

[nwhitehill]

Hi all,
New Kioti owner here.....
While greasing the front axle, front pivot the fitting didn't appear to take much grease. I'm using a DeWalt battery powered grease gun. Thinking the fitting was clogged I stayed on the fitting and finally it 'popped' and started taking grease. Well, looking at it after the fact, it looks like there was a seal. I hadn't run into this type of set up before and there was no warning in the manual. So I'm wondering how much damage did I do by blowing that seal? The tractor has around 33 hours on it.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

It doesn't take much grease. Damage? none but do try to pop the seal back into place. Take pictures for ideas as to how to do this.

 

[nwhitehill]

It doesn't take much grease. Damage? none but do try to pop the seal back into place. Take pictures for ideas as to how to do this.

Is the seal (I think it is just an o-ring) hard to replace?

 

[xcgreene]

Welcome to the forum mwhitehill.

Front pivots are often set up as per the drawing below. The grease fills up the small space between the axle pivot pin and the housing in which the pin pivots inside of. There is also a seal that keeps the grease in and dust out of the pivot. That seal is preventing the grease from coming out, as it should. So when you pressure up that zerk, and the void is full of grease already, and the grease cannot escape, the pressure pushes the axle rearward, into the rear pivot pin, which can cause the axle to be stiff for a short while. Eventually that lip seal will wear enough to allow grease to push out more easily.

This particulare image is from a DKse series front axle pivot.

 

[ptsg]

The seal also prevents water and dirt to get in being that these tractors were originally made to work on rice paddies in Korea, Japan, etc. and will spend the entire day with the front axle submerged.

 

[nwhitehill]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I'm going to get the replacement part and give it a try.

 

[ptsg]

By the way, this is a common setup on most tractors, even the big boys. However, the bigger tractors along with the grease zerk, will have something that looks like a grease zerk but is works like a relief valve.

So when pumping grease, the excess pressure will be relieved by this relief valve instead of pushing the seals out.

 

[DieselBound]

This is something that's always bugged me. I've also removed the zerk and verified it passes grease. I tend to get grease pushing back out of the zerk; figure this means I haven't blown out the seal. Will look to only ever give a single pump.