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wdtom
04-19-2005 18:47:12
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Re: Maintenance questions Farmall A in reply to Al Fitch, 04-19-2005 18:28:22
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To grease, wipe the grease fitting with a rag, just the fitting is good enough unless you want to wipe down the area as a general thing. Put the nozzle of the gun over the fitting, lining up the nozzle straight out from the fitting, push lightly and youwill feel it sort of snap on. Pump the handle, if more than just a little bit of grease leaks out, you don't have the nozzle on straight with the fitting. How much? For a ball or roller bearing only about one stroke is necessary, for bushings and ball joints, I grease until I see it comming out or the rubber just begins to bulge out. You don't want to blow out the seal. As for ball and roller bearings, they generally go a long time with out relubeing, and a little will go a long way. It is said if you over grease them they can over heat from the grease churning inside. Maybe if they are high speed, but on most I haven't ever seen this. I have seen way more fail from lack of grease than too much, and this goes for all mechanical things, too much generally will only overflow and make a mess, too little will wear out the bearing way soon. In general, a little lube more often is better than a lot of lube at long intervals. Since you are new to grease guns, give yours one pump and notich how much grease comes out in your hand. When you are lubeing a bearing this amount should go into the bearing each stroke, if it is leaking out of the joint betweenthe nozzle and fitting you most likely need to improve the alingment betweenthe nozzle and the fitting. Once in a while a fitting or nozzle will have a problem and need replacement to work right. Grease fittings have a small ball visible in the center of the round part you see, there is a spring under it that keeps it closed, pressure from the grease entering it opens it, allowing grease to enter. If the ball is missing dirt can enter. Replace it. Most grease fittings are either 1/8" pipe thread or 1/4"-28 nf thread. The pipe size is about the diameter of a pencil, maybe a little larger, and the 1/4-28 is 1/4" in dia, will fit a fine thread 1/4 nut. Then there are metric fittings, not found on antique tractors.
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