Kubota B7100 Front Axle Screwup

[Joe Z]

I recently purchased a B7100 and after topping off the gear lube in the front 4x4 axles i proceeded to grease the upper king pin and started pumping and pumping looking for grease to come out somewhere... about 35 full pumps in each. Now i find out i messed up and all that grease goes into the gear lube.
Any suggestions besides taking it all apart?

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Well luckily your in Phoenix, it's so dang hot down there it won't hurt a thing!

Seriously it really won't hurt anything, there really isn't any easy way to get it out of there without disassembling everything.

I would wait till it gets in the 100's (steel will be 140+ in the sun) then pull the plugs and see how much you can get to liquefy and drain.

Other option would be to fill it with kerosene hand turn the wheels a bunch to work it around, then drain it out.

 

[Lil Foot]

NIW nailed it. Grease in there won't harm a thing. You might notice a problem if you were located in Antarctica, but not Phoenix. If you want a feel for what you'd have to do to disassemble the front axle, have a look at this thread:
http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21369&highlight=front+axle

 

[hodge]

I spend a decent time each year, in Haiti. Things are done differently down there, because necessity is the mother of invention- or improvisation. When a differential gets extremely worn, they will pull it, pack the pumpkin with grease, then shove the diff back in. They will run it until the grease has either run out, or the diff is severely loose again, and repeat the process.
I agree with Wolfman. You should be able to deal with it without disassembling.

 

[Joe Z]

Thank you so much for that reply... I'm a decent mechanic and just wasn't sure about Kubota front axles. 110 degrees is quite often and 118 degrees occasionally here.(you don't work outside in the summer afternoon heat)
I thought about the kerosene clean out and i'm assuming that the gear lube from the center differential does not flow into the axle ends as they have separate gear lube fills.
You sure took a load of worry off my mind..... thanks so much

 

[Joe Z]

My mistake was assuming.....Thanks to all of you that replied...... you sure have me resting easy now

 

[ronbourd]

One thing not to forget is that the lower king pin is lubrificated by the oil of the differential. There is no grease zerk on the lower king pin, and there is no oil level plug on the differential .I learned that the hard way,when I took the front axel apart, the lower king pin was full of rust and worn, so make sure that there is enough oil in the differential to drip and lubrificate the lower pin..Above the lower king pin. there was a lot of grease coming from the grease applied to the upper king pin,witch was like new...since 1976! I had to rebore and sleeve to fit new pins (lower pins), The pins are very expensive, so I used a 20mm chrome cylinder shaft and added a zerk to those new pins. ! hope this can help Ronald.

 

[Lil Foot]

The B7100 front axle has 3 drain and 3 fill level plugs- one each for the center section (diff) and one each for each outer gear case.

 

[Joe Z]

Thank You for the reply's

 

[Dave_eng]

The B7100 front axle has 3 drain and 3 fill level plugs- one each for the center section (diff) and one each for each outer gear case.

Although there are three fill plugs, am I wrong in thinking all three sections, left, middle and center are all interconnected?

I can see why you would want to be able to fill each end to ensure levels are all good but I don't know what happens internally.

Dave

 

[Lil Foot]

Although there are three fill plugs, am I wrong in thinking all three sections, left, middle and center are all interconnected?

There are seals between the three sections. (#37 & #58)
There is undoubtably some seepage between the sections, but if everything works as it should, the end gear cases should be separate from the center section, at least in the older 4 lug, ball type axle. Not sure about the newer 6 lug axle.
When I opened mine up, the #37 seal on one side was flopping loose on the axle shaft, and the #58 seal on the same side was in crooked, but I had lots of gear oil in it, so no damage.