Tips Greasing Blower and FEL

FullBucket · Jan 3, 2008

Was struggling a little on my grease maintenance today and thought I would poll you guys for your wisdom.

Blower (B2781) PTO shaft- book calls for grease every 4 hours of operation. I found it very ackward to access the ujoints. Had to disassemble the shaft to get past guards and get angle to nipples. Took a lot of time and effort (PITA) and I know if I don't find an easier way I won't do this as often as I should. Ideas?

Augers - 1 faces up the other down. Unless lucky one of these is hard to get to. I only greased the one facing upwards today figuring I'll be lucky tomorrow and find the othe pointing up tomorrow. Other ways?

FEL - Some of the nipples were easily accessible with the bucket on the floor but others weren't. Is there a raised position that positions nipples for easy access.

redharley · Jan 3, 2008

fullbucket,with the loader in the raised posiition or part way,also roll the bucket when rasied,you should be able to grease fairly easy the ones you cannot access on the ground.As for the snowblower,I do not have the model you state,but sometimes turning the shafts to gain access,the flexible hose is a must and also for me a pistol type grease gun,you need one hand to hold and work grease gun and one to hold end on fitting.Aso recomend installing angled fitting for better access where possible.Good luck, remember grease is WAY less expensive than parts and labor it's OK to waste some trying to get that fitting to take grease.

FullBucket · Jan 3, 2008

Redharley,

Good idea re angled nipples thx. Didn't know about them. Like the idea of pistol grip too. I have std pump and that takes both hands and all of my patience

I have an air compressor head for my gun as well. I think that should free up a hand and make things easier. Hope flow is easy to control. Not sure I can rotate augur. Gears make it difficult. Tried today with tractor in neutral from augur. But maybe better from PTO side. Will give it a shot. Thanks for your thoughts. Good ideas that I will experiment with

TalonDancer · Jan 3, 2008

When greasing my FEL the first thing I do is drop off the bucket

Then I raise the FEL over my head and shut of the engine. After greasing the lowest zerks on the arms, I lower the FEL to shoulder high to grease the QA zerks. Then lower the QA to the ground to grease the zerks on the upper part of the arms.

FWIW I use an old style lever pump grease gun with a 45 degree head.

Talon Dancer

fish6942 · Jan 4, 2008

Regarding rotating the blower auger, on my rear mount blower the PTO selector has to be set to the mid-only position. If it's in the rear-only or mid-and-rear position the auger will not turn by hand. This is the case regardless of whether the PTO clutch is engaged or disengaged.

hdbikercouple · Jan 4, 2008

i agree raise the loader arms and curl the bucket. as for the snow blower i remove the pto shaft from the tractor that way i can spin the auger ,move the pto to get at the zerts.and it does not get rusted to the pto on the tractor. had that happen to a big farm tractor, was not fun trying to get the pto shaft's pin to move.

FullBucket · Jan 4, 2008

fish6942,

Thanks for the tip re shifting PTO. Tried it today and it worked like a charm.

Didn't have time to try bucket positions but I'm sure it will help. Thanks to all for your ideas. The tough one left seems to be getting at the PTO "zerks". Anybody got a new way?