Can you over grease a tractor?

[Bigdawg90]

I’m pretty meticulous when it comes to maintenance. I baby everything I own because I’ve learned it’s cheaper to do that than replace it.

My tractors at about 35 hours in a little less than 3 months. I didn’t use it much when it was horrendously hot outside.

It says to grease the loader every ten hours and to check all other grease zerks every 50. Everytime I’ve greased the loader I do all zerks. I just do a couple pumps.

One of my buddies said I can ruin joints by “over- greasing” them……I thought what???

Can you over-grease a zerk? I thought that’s what that little pressure valve on sealed joints is. Like the front axle. Because of the inclines at my property I’m always in 4wd. I’m waiting for the dealership to get a part in for their Rimguard and then I should be able to be out of 4wd sometimes.

What say the people with a lot more knowledge? Can you over grease with a typical grease gun?

 

[MR.T.]

That's a new one. I never heard of that.

That's why the old excess grease squirts out when you put new grease in.

 

[swampratt]

Now on automotive deals the rubber cup used to be just that a rubber cup and it was not sealed up.
You could pump grease into it until it pushed old grease and water out.
Yea water in there sometimes.

Much later they had sealed up the rubber boots and if you pumped grease into them until it came out what you essentially did was rupture the sealed boot.
Now you must grease more often to keep the crud out of the torn seal.

Some cars and I have had them have a sealed tie rod and sealed ball joints where there is not any grease zerk.

Guess what. They never failed 276,000 miles and it was a Ford and I drove it off road also.

Now onto U-joints.
Those things if you ever installed them are sealed tight and you can actually create a hydraulic lock situation in some of them by pumping too much grease into them.

If the grease comes out you are probably fine but some of those just quit taking grease and nothing comes out.
Life will be reduced.

I quit running the hollow greasable U-Joints because they would only last a few months in my hot rods.
Solid Brute Force were good then they changed where they were made and quality slipped.
Tolerances grew on them so now I run Spicers and those are also solid and have not broke any of them in 15+ years.

Uncle worked in a military power plant and the ujoints would eventually fail about every 6 months so a new boss got on board and said grease them every week.
My uncle said you will fail them sooner because you hydraulic lock them.

You know the drill.
WHO IS THE BOSS HERE.

Well they failed every month after that ordeal.
Something to think about.

 

[Preacherman]

My opinion is that yes you can over grease by filling until it breaks the seal and come out. The crazy thing is that is how most were taught to do it.

 

[rawhide]

I don't know about the possibility of over greasing some parts of the tractor, but I don't think you can over grease the loader.

 

[OHJEEZE]

I do not get into having gobs of grease all over everything and have learned what works good for me.

If you give a pivot pin 1 pump of grease and see most of that pump of grease outside the joint shortly after use, grease less!

I am typically using 1/3 to 1/2 a pump per joint.

And you do not need to grease your loader pivot pins every 10 machine hours. Grease them based on loader use.

 

[SoonerP226]

My dad said when he was a kid, it was his job to grease everything before they started working for the day, each and every day, and my grandpa's equipment was all still in good working order when he passed (which would've been after 40-50 years of service). That was a long time ago, and things have progressed quite a bit since then.

If you grease those pivot pins and it squooshes out good grease, you've over-greased it, but that's mostly because you're wasting perfectly good grease, not because it's going to do damage.

 

[Okie4570]

Since going to a 20v grease gun rather than a hand squeeze, I'm okay with over geasing lol.

 

[264killer]

I have a 5 gallon bucket of grease with a pump & 20 foot hose . I dont mind washing out the old grease every time I get on a zerk.

 

[ForsakenConservative]

I don’t know tractors, but thinking of what I have done, I would consider the sealing system for the joint itself. As swamprat spoke of, some types can/will be damaged by over-servicing them. My mower warns against too much, as it damages the spindle seals. My old cars employ dust boots which are not fixed on one end, so the excess grease simply flows out with debris. Worst case, IMHO, if you over grease and damage a seal, you’ll simply have to continue with the habit.