Greasing your machine....The hate/hate relationship.

mcmxi

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
***Current*** M6060HDC, MX6000HSTC & GL7000 ***Sold*** MX6000HST & BX25DLB
Feb 9, 2021
5,298
6,286
113
NW Montana
The use of moly grease/EP2 is just a 'recommended in the FEL manual, Not a requirement!! I've been a mechanic most of my life, to include 11 years of as a crew chief working on 45 million dollar helicopters. I buy grease in cases/bulk, the Shell grease is about $20 more per case, and meets the Kubota verbiage of a "high quality grease". If the Shell High Performance Multipurpose Lithium Extreme Pressure Grease, is good enough for the SVL 75-2 skidsteer that has higher break out force than my tractors, I think its perfectly suitable for using it on the FEL of my tractors.

Like others said, grease brand/specs is a preference.... any use of grease is better than no grease!
I buy grease in cases too. In a perfect world I'd have one grease for everything but that's just not the case for me (pun intended). :ROFLMAO:

Holy crap! What kind of helicopter costs $45M? :oops: A couple of friends up here are pilots and own or co-own aircraft and it's amazing to me how much money is buzzing around the skies. They've told me that an electronics upgrade can easily cost $100k or more and that could be on a 50 year old Cessna or something.
 
Last edited:
  • Haha
Reactions: 1 user

Siesta Sundance

Well-known member

Equipment
L305DT, MX 5200, SVL 75-2, (Sold M7060))
Oct 23, 2022
1,549
1,929
113
78125
youtube.com
I buy grease in cases too. In a perfect world I'd have one grease for everything but that's just not the case for me (pun intended). :ROFLMAO:

Holy crap! What kind of helicopter costs $45M? :oops: A couple of friends up here are pilots and own or co-own aircraft and it's amazing to me how much money is buzzing around the skies. They've told me that an electronics upgrade can easily cost $100k or more and that could be on a 50 year old Cessna or something.
Expensive military egg beaters! Mostly AH-64's, but a few spl ops craft and other experimental/hush aircraft.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user

Tractor Gal

Active member

Equipment
BX23D MLB
Oct 30, 2020
473
132
43
NC
OK. I think I get the gist. Despite the fact that my machines do not generally get worked as hard as most, the loader and backhoe require a grease for extreme pressure. Stepping back from it, it makes sense. I think my hope at the time of asking the question was to get rid of this black "awful" stuff. When greasing, as you all know, we look for grease to be oozing out a bit. Sometimes, I've overshot and a big glob of the black grease appears. It's a mess, even on a rag. Yuk. But, I digress.

Decision: I'm going to use the red and tacky in the manual grease gun and an extreme pressure grease of some kind...moly or lithium...in the new DeWalt.

You'd think I was a construction supervisor or something, wouldn't you? My little machine is 20 years old this year (only under my care for 3 1/3 years). It had not been well-maintained, imho, but it has been so enjoyable getting it back "up to par." I've had to replace hydraulic hoses, remove the backhoe control valve to clean it, figure out and repair the fuel leak at the injectors, correcting a hydraulic fluid leak at the drain plug from a stripped bolt and mangled threads in the housing, along with all the fluid and filter changes. That progress has been aided in great part due to the input from this board. This has been my first exposure to a diesel as well as to anything hydraulic. Had I known...I would've done this years ago when I was a young woman! I want to keep it operational since this will probably be the last one of this kind that I buy.

Thank you, everyone! Don't let it go to your head, but you are the greatest!

TG

By the way...a bit off topic here but I'm preparing to change the fan belt. I can't believe that process to get this done...what was Kubota thinking?! One more thing to figure out! Gotta' love it.
 

GeoHorn

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
M4700DT, LA1002FEL, Ferguson5-8B Compactor-Roller, 10KDumpTrailer, RTV-X900
May 18, 2018
6,039
3,316
113
Texas
The use of moly grease/EP2 is just a 'recommended in the FEL manual, Not a requirement!! I've been a mechanic most of my life, to include 11 years of as a crew chief working on 45 million dollar helicopters. I buy grease in cases/bulk, the Shell grease is about $20 more per case, and meets the Kubota verbiage of a "high quality grease". If the Shell High Performance Multipurpose Lithium Extreme Pressure Grease, is good enough for the SVL 75-2 skidsteer that has higher break out force than my tractors, I think its perfectly suitable for using it on the FEL of my tractors.

Like others said, grease brand/specs is a preference.... any use of grease is better than no grease!
Throwing water onto an electrical fire might be better than doing nothing.….Maybe not.

You used the specified grease meeting the Mil-Spec which was supplied by the gov’t for that job.

You Did Not use just “any type” …OR Fail to grease… So “any grease is better than no grease” is a dubious comparative.

I put diesel fuel in my diesel tractor fuel tank…. Not just “any fuel”
 

fried1765

Well-known member

Equipment
Kubota L48 TLB, Ford 1920 FEL, Ford 8N, SCAG Liberty Z, Gravely Pro.
Nov 14, 2019
7,843
5,066
113
Eastham, Ma
The black grease is most likely molybdenum grease and that type of grease meets your description. I recall that 5% and less can be used on roller bearings.

Your use of the red and tacky on the mower is probably on the spindles which have anti friction bearings that are turning at a pretty good speed (2500 RPM?).

Your use of the molybdenum on the loader and loader is probably just pin joints.

You could decide to continue using two greases one in the existing manual grease gun and the other in the new electric gun. I would recommend using the electric grease gun for the grease that you use the most of each month.
I would suggest, that Tractor Gal just go buy some Red-N-Tacky, or Mobil Delvac, or Supertech, or whatever, and be very conscientious about greasing everything FREQUENTLY.
 

fried1765

Well-known member

Equipment
Kubota L48 TLB, Ford 1920 FEL, Ford 8N, SCAG Liberty Z, Gravely Pro.
Nov 14, 2019
7,843
5,066
113
Eastham, Ma
OK. I think I get the gist. Despite the fact that my machines do not generally get worked as hard as most, the loader and backhoe require a grease for extreme pressure. Stepping back from it, it makes sense. I think my hope at the time of asking the question was to get rid of this black "awful" stuff. When greasing, as you all know, we look for grease to be oozing out a bit. Sometimes, I've overshot and a big glob of the black grease appears. It's a mess, even on a rag. Yuk. But, I digress.

Decision: I'm going to use the red and tacky in the manual grease gun and an extreme pressure grease of some kind...moly or lithium...in the new DeWalt.

You'd think I was a construction supervisor or something, wouldn't you? My little machine is 20 years old this year (only under my care for 3 1/3 years). It had not been well-maintained, imho, but it has been so enjoyable getting it back "up to par." I've had to replace hydraulic hoses, remove the backhoe control valve to clean it, figure out and repair the fuel leak at the injectors, correcting a hydraulic fluid leak at the drain plug from a stripped bolt and mangled threads in the housing, along with all the fluid and filter changes. That progress has been aided in great part due to the input from this board. This has been my first exposure to a diesel as well as to anything hydraulic. Had I known...I would've done this years ago when I was a young woman! I want to keep it operational since this will probably be the last one of this kind that I buy.

Thank you, everyone! Don't let it go to your head, but you are the greatest!

TG

By the way...a bit off topic here but I'm preparing to change the fan belt. I can't believe that process to get this done...what was Kubota thinking?! One more thing to figure out! Gotta' love it.

"you are the greatest".......
..........We.... already knew that!!!!! :ROFLMAO:
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user

Siesta Sundance

Well-known member

Equipment
L305DT, MX 5200, SVL 75-2, (Sold M7060))
Oct 23, 2022
1,549
1,929
113
78125
youtube.com
Throwing water onto an electrical8 fire might be better than doing nothing.….Maybe not.

You used the specified grease meeting the Mil-Spec which was supplied by the gov’t for that job.

You Did Not use just “any type” …OR Fail to grease… So “any grease is better than no grease” is a dubious comparative.

I put diesel fuel in my diesel tractor fuel tank…. Not just “any fuel”
You obviously dont understand the difference between what's recommend vs. what's required.
 

GeoHorn

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
M4700DT, LA1002FEL, Ferguson5-8B Compactor-Roller, 10KDumpTrailer, RTV-X900
May 18, 2018
6,039
3,316
113
Texas
Perhaps you could enlighten?
He apparently believes mfr’s simply make sheit up …and don’t know what their product requires….
and is demonstrating a lack of care.