Can you over grease a tractor?

[Okie4570]

Remember there are seldom if ever bearings at loader joints, it's just steel on steel with a zerk on the housing to get some grease in there. Most gets worked out every time the loader is used. Can't over grease a loader, you can waste some for sure but not over grease imo.

 

[Chief Sapulpa]

I highly suggest adding protective grease fitting caps.
Caplugs GC series

Grease Caps | GC Series | Caplugs

 

[Ahall]

Greasing

If you put in so much you blow out the seals that may be an issue

Some systems are designed with seals as the primary debris exclusion system

Others grease to purge debris contaminated lubricants and want it flushed out.

Either way bearings like clean lube and don’t ingest trash well.

The more important thing is to pick a type of grease and stay with it. Some greases are not chemical compatible and react to create goop that does not lubricate the joints. So if you buy something advertised as super whoopie extra good and everything craters that could be the problem.

 

[HoLeChit]

If you have seals that cannot release the pressure and you damage the seals by over greasing them, then yes, you can over grease. Grease schedules based upon the hour meter are simply because manufacturers cannot expect operators to accurately judge what needs to be done based upon usage. During my time as a mechanic, I found the best kept equipment had an operator who cared about his equipment and greased it when needed, and then was taken in to a knowledgeable tech who was able to service the equipment properly. What does that look like in terms of greasing? In my opinion, let’s say a daily commercially used backhoe it looks like this:

Operator checks fluids and hits all grease zerks with just enough grease to make it come out of the weep holes every morning. Just a tiny bit, I typically stop the second I see anything come out. This is to ensure you don’t have a bad seal, you expel any extra debris out of the seal area, your weep holes are not plugged, and that your greased area is full of grease. This could take 1/10th of a pump, this could take 2-3.

When servicing, I liked to “over grease” the joints. This was typically on 1000 and 2000 hour services. 500 hour services typically got less. Grease until new grease comes out of the seal/weep hole. Articulate the joint throughout the range of motion and hit it with 1-2 more pumps just to ensure you got everything. This flushes everything out and ensures everything is clean and fresh. Clean up excess grease, inspect seal, done.

Use only the types of grease the manufacturer recommends. You don’t have to use their suggested brand, just their suggested type. Don’t mix types of grease, oil, coolant, or anything really. Me personally, I prefer John Deere for oils and grease. Purchased through the dealership, not Walmart or tractor supply. I feel it is some of the best in the industry although It is rather pricey. Their spray paint is really good stuff too.

 

[Roy14]

If you have seals that cannot release the pressure and you damage the seals by over greasing them, then yes, you can over grease. Grease schedules based upon the hour meter are simply because manufacturers cannot expect operators to accurately judge what needs to be done based upon usage. During my time as a mechanic, I found the best kept equipment had an operator who cared about his equipment and greased it when needed, and then was taken in to a knowledgeable tech who was able to service the equipment properly. What does that look like in terms of greasing? In my opinion, let’s say a daily commercially used backhoe it looks like this:

Operator checks fluids and hits all grease zerks with just enough grease to make it come out of the weep holes every morning. Just a tiny bit, I typically stop the second I see anything come out. This is to ensure you don’t have a bad seal, you expel any extra debris out of the seal area, your weep holes are not plugged, and that your greased area is full of grease. This could take 1/10th of a pump, this could take 2-3.

When servicing, I liked to “over grease” the joints. This was typically on 1000 and 2000 hour services. 500 hour services typically got less. Grease until new grease comes out of the seal/weep hole. Articulate the joint throughout the range of motion and hit it with 1-2 more pumps just to ensure you got everything. This flushes everything out and ensures everything is clean and fresh. Clean up excess grease, inspect seal, done.

Use only the types of grease the manufacturer recommends. You don’t have to use their suggested brand, just their suggested type. Don’t mix types of grease, oil, coolant, or anything really. Me personally, I prefer John Deere for oils and grease. Purchased through the dealership, not Walmart or tractor supply. I feel it is some of the best in the industry although It is rather pricey. Their spray paint is really good stuff too.

2nd all of this. On a job, gets greased every morning before job starts, amount is just enough to barely expel some of the old so your input matches what was used during the job the day before. When in rock and digging hard, might grease at lunch too. On the farm with less intense work being done, I’d stretch it out on a tractor to 8-12 hours of use.

 

[Ryan500L]

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.

I think the sealed u-joints last longer myself. My Ford F-350 had way over 200,000 on it when I changed them and they probably could've went longer but I didn't want to chance it.