How much grease is too much?

[kokosing]

My question is, is it necessary to grease the machine everyday? We operate four JD 544Ks and one JD 544J, and our company every morning wants us to grease them every 8 hours, and do other daily maintenance, check the oil, hydro, tire condition and so on. I have grease pouring out everywhere and really don't think that it is helping at all? :beatsme I usually hit the drive shaft and two center pins at the pivot point daily, but there is a quick disconnect that I may do weekly and the other pins too.

 

[Turbo21835]

Simple answer is read what the owners manual says. Ive seen machines that are stating 50 hour grease intervals, yours may do the same.

 

[sultan]

Are the bearings sealed? Usually they're not in loaders, so excess grease doesn't hurt anything. Still, greasing everything daily probably isn't necessary. The manuals usually say grease every 50 hours, though I usually do every 25 hours because grease is cheap insurance against pin wear. Also, putting in a little bit of grease in every fitting frequently is better than putting in a ton all at once and then leaving it for ages.

If you choose to put in grease daily, it shouldn't hurt the machine, but you don't need to put in much. For daily greasing, put ~4 shots of grease in every fitting in the loader linkage and in the 2 articulating pivot pins. The drive shafts will do fine if you grease them weekly.

 

[JDOFMEMI]

There is no single right answer.
The best answer for your position is "the amount the boss says"

The older machines were mostly all needing grease daily, some even more. With better fit and quality, and better seals to hold grease in and dirt out, a lot of newer iron can go a week.
I always like to pay attention to how often something moves during the shift. For example, the bottom pin of the boom hoist cylender only moves in maybe a 20 degree arc for a full raise of the boom, while the pins on the "Z" bar may make a 180 degree rotation, and do it more often. One needs more grease more often than the other, in my opinion.
If the bearings were sealed, they would not have grease fittings, so I think that is out.

Center pivot and rear axle trunion are important ones. Driveshafts should go by the schedules, unless you have already blown the seals out from overgreasing. Then you have to keep it up.

My thought would be bucket linkage and center pivot daily, the rest weekly, but I refer you back to the first point.

 

[sultan]

There is no single right answer.
The best answer for your position is "the amount the boss says"

The older machines were mostly all needing grease daily, some even more. With better fit and quality, and better seals to hold grease in and dirt out, a lot of newer iron can go a week.
I always like to pay attention to how often something moves during the shift. For example, the bottom pin of the boom hoist cylender only moves in maybe a 20 degree arc for a full raise of the boom, while the pins on the "Z" bar may make a 180 degree rotation, and do it more often. One needs more grease more often than the other, in my opinion.
If the bearings were sealed, they would not have grease fittings, so I think that is out.

Center pivot and rear axle trunion are important ones. Driveshafts should go by the schedules, unless you have already blown the seals out from overgreasing. Then you have to keep it up.

My thought would be bucket linkage and center pivot daily, the rest weekly, but I refer you back to the first point.

I agree fully with your response. Older machines needed more grease than the newer ones.

Many modern excavators have crude rubber ring seals around the bearings to keep the bulk of the dirt out, but they still have grease fittings and need weekly greasing (and daily greasing when working in wet stuff). I imagine that some loaders may have similar rings around the bearings (none of my loaders have such rings, but then I only have older machines). The rubber rings do extend greasing intervals a bit, and would eliminate the need for daily greasing in a loader. But then, keep your boss happy and do whatever he says.

 

[DGODGR]

As the boss of my company I must agree in that I also recommend that you do what the boss said. I also want my employees to use their heads and employ common sense. If I wanted a robot, I would get a robot (and probably save a lot of money and headaches). If the boss says grease daily then do so, but do it sensibly. I have a 544J and the manual has a different service recommendation for the different pivot points. Read the manual. If you are running these loaders daily, you should be well accustomed to them. As they are basically the same machine (although the "K" models are available with "never grease" pins) they should have similar grease requirements. If I were you I would experiment with how much grease each pivot requires. Count the number of pumps until you hear the grease make a suttle "pop" sound. This will be when the grease makes its way out of the bearing area. Commit the amount of pumps that each bearing requires to memory. Make adjustments as needed.

 

[RocksnRoses]

We grease the lower pins and bushes on our loader frames daily and the rest of the machine every second day through winter, when there is less dust around. During summer, when it is hot, dry and dusty, we grease the whole machine, apart from the driveline, daily. The newer machines have rubber seal rings on the pins, but on the older machines with no seal rings, we would often grease the lower pins and bushes twice daily. I tell my blokes to grease the pins and bushes until the grease emerges between the bush and the frame. This pushes the old grease and dirt out and helps create a grease seal around the bush. It may look messy, but we also have original pins and bushes that have done 11 - 12,000 hours. The drivelines we grease around the 50 hour mark. I don't mind if they use a little extra grease, because it is way cheaper than repairs.

RnR.

 

[rattletrap]

Where I work we grease the drivetrain once a week, the bottom bucket pins twice a day, and all other pivots daily. We also are instructed to "pump grease till you see grease."

 

[daman]

Depends on the situation/application,but YES definitely sometimes.

also using the right grease helps with repeat vs occasional applications

 

[Dwan Hall]

A little help here. Grab 3 or 4 colors of paint. Paint around the zerks that need grease once a day red. The ones that need grease once a week blue, seldom ones paint green. etc. sure helps remember for us older operators.

 

[bigrus]

Just enough

I have grease pouring out everywhere and really don't think that it is helping at all? :beatsme .

Count how many stokes/shots of grease into the various nipple/zerks & you will work out how much is necessary, so you don't 'over grease'
Owner operators who pay for their lube materials would be 'switched on' to this type of practice

 

[crayton]

Pretty good rule of thumb.----Don't grease it for what it did, grease it for what it's gona do.!

 

[kokosing]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback very much :thumbsup I will just continue to grease it daily or so, just to do what I am told!

And what we use the loaders for is a lumber reload.

 

[cummins05]

The WA 500 i just ran (to cheap for auto lube system) got 5 shots per pin 4 times a 12 hr shift. and 20 shots twice a shift for the axle pivot and such

My dad owned alot of loaders and tried a few ways of greasing auto lube was the best then greasing a couple times a day last was greasing once a day.

Oh and U joints weekly don`t forget the one between the engine and trans if you have it our older WA 500s did what a pita

 

[bobbarker]

You can usually hear a pop when the last bit of air is forced out of the pins. On most volvo equipment there is a service chart and most everything has different service limits. As basically everyone else said think about how much each pin moves, take into account the wear on the seals wear on the pins excessive wear needs more grease. Over greasing can cause said wear though. Excess grease on the machine can attract dirt rocks ect and tear and wear seals/pins. There is no replacement for experience, know your machine and its grease requirements when you run it. We had a Volvo hoe with ~1000 hours on it tear a swinghouse seal which has a reccomended service interval of 250hrs. Grease came pouring out. Obviously it had been treated as just another fitting to be greased and caused a very costly repair.

 

[John C.]

Usually the only issues that excess grease causes are dirty clothes and language when people put various body parts in it.

When I was in the military it was stated grease has three main purposes, lubricate, seal out dirt and water and flush dirt and water out of joints when it does get in. I've been seeing lots of maintenance intervals showing 40 hours between greasing and that will work for awhile when the machine is new. Most manufacturers now are using lip seals on the ends of the joints which will tend to hold the grease in. However once the joint gets a little movement in it the lips will gap and the clean grease will escape and you will have a dry joint. It only takes two or three loads on a dry joint to start pulling metal and then the accelerated wear rate never quits.

When I worked for the Komatsu dealer we told people that the implements should get greased every eight hours at least, no matter what the manufacturer said. The faster you wear out those joints the more parts they sell.

 

[Bumpus]

.
A road job I worked on ran two shifts, and all off road end dumps and dozers
were greased at the end of every shift.

All End Loaders and Excavators were greased twice a shift,
and at the end of every shift, and at lunch hour also.
.

 

[komatsukid]

Dont forget to take into account the forces put on the machines pins. I work in a pit and operate a 980G with seven and a half yard bucket. I grease the entire machine once a day and bucket linkage twice a day. We find greasing the bucket pins twice daily helps alot. The banks we dig are hard, stoney, natural banks. Material lilke this distroys pins and bushings. Also use a quality lubricant I would recommend a TRC product to anyone.

 

[72V]

On a loader, the first pins to need grease are usually the bucket hinge pins, since they rotate a long ways, and are down in whatever you're working in. When digging hard, it's not a bad idea to hit these at mid day. In general, I subscribe to the "quit when it goes tsk" method. I think that the larger diameter the pin, the more degrees it rotates per hour, and whether it slides back and forth in the bushing correspond to how fast it goes through grease.

 

[rabbit]

Grease

I agree the fittings need to be greased on a regular maintenance. But I hate to come up on a machine where every thing you touch gets grease all over you. :usa