M59 Pin Noise - Grease Type

[Falk781]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum, but purchased a new M59 just under a year ago. I have about 60 hours, although I have a question. For some reason, the pins where the FEL attaches to the tractor are starting to chatter. First the left side started and after raising and lowering while greasing, it seemed to go away for a few hours, then came back. I pulled the pin and made sure grease was flowing, cleaned it up and ran some emory cloth over it, regreased and it seemed to be ok. Today, the right side started. I greased it and it didn't make a difference and I ran out of light and couldn't work on it anymore.

I grease all of the fittings more frequent than the 10 hour interval, so I can't imagine that being it. I'm wondering if it's the type of grease? I'm using NLGI which is recommended by the manual. Any suggestions? Should I pull the pins again and clean/inspect?

 

[JWB]

Pin chatter is caused from one of two things. Over stress or lack of lubrication. Usually the latter. Take the pins out and clean up any galling. Be sure to check the pin bushings also. Check that the zirk fitting are clear of dirt/paint. Grease manually, including the bushings. With troublesome pins I have had luck with the following: move to one end of the movement range (ie. all the way up) grease the pin, lower half way and grease the pin, set the bucket on the ground and grease the pin again. I know it seems crazy but changing where the pressure is applied inside the bushing will get grease in the hard to "itch" spots. Repeat this procedure for each area of movement. Hope this helps!
JWB

 

[Falk781]

Thanks alot for your response. I am travelling until Thursday and will check it then. With only 60 hours, I can't imagine that the pins or bushings are worn out. I will do as you suggest and report back.

 

[Bulldog]

What kind of grease are you using?

The rating NLGI for grease is like the "W" rating for motor oil.

I use a NLGI #2 rated grease. All the NLGI number tells you is how thick the grease is. It has nothing to do with the lubrication factor of the grease.

 

[traildust]

Great advice so far. One question I have is how many hours are you going in between lubes? Depending on your work loads you may need to decrease the hours of lubing. I think the standard is every ten hours for the fel and you may need to drop that some.

 

[Bulldog]

Hi everyone, I have about 60 hours. For some reason, the pins where the FEL attaches to the tractor are starting to chatter. First the left side started and after raising and lowering while greasing, it seemed to go away for a few hours, then came back. Today, the right side started. I greased it and it didn't make a difference.

I grease all of the fittings more frequent than the 10 hour interval, so I can't imagine that being it. I'm wondering if it's the type of grease? Any suggestions?

After a few times of going back over the original post I'm confused. Are the pins that are chattering the actual pins that hold the loader to the sub frame?

If so, are these the pins that you have been greasing or are you greasing the rest of the loader? My pins on my loader can be tightened up just like a bolt but I'm sure you have a different style. I know that my pins are not greasable thru a grease fitting but can be lubed when they are removed. If these are the pins that are giving you the trouble I would remove them and put a nice heavy coating of grease on them and put them back in. The grease should help them from making any noise then.

I use Amsoil Synthetic Heavy Duty grease with Moly on my loader and other equipment. I use my loader tractor just about every day for something. It may get 30 minutes of time on it one day and may get 10 hrs. the next. I only grease my loader about one time per month. During hay season I will bump that up to 2x a month but I don't think that's really necessary. I'm very pleased with the performance of this grease. It stays where you put it.

 

[Falk781]

The pins that we're having the trouble with are the ones that secure the lift arms closest to the tractor frame, not on the bucket end. The grease intervals have not gone over the 10 hour mark and I grease every pin and the floating front axle.

When the left side started making noise, I greased it a few times while raising and lowering and it went away. It then came back and I pulled the pin, verified that grease was moving through it, then hand greased it and it stopped.

Last weekend we were moving some heavy wet dirt and both pins started to make noise towards the end of the day. Note that the right side never made noise until now. I greased them both and the noise didn't go away. I suppose I will remove both pins, likely one at a time so it doesn't come crashing off and clean, inspect, hand lube and reinstall.

 

[pat331]

Falk, this is just my opinion, but a tractor with only 60 hours and 1 year old that has pins like yours that are making noise indicates there is a problem with either design, manufacture, or both. My tractor has over 900 hours on it and the FEL has had some serious use and abuse and its pins don't make any noise. It also has not been greased like it should, but it does get greased when I happen to think about it. I think it is time to take it back to the dealer for some warranty work. Please keep us informed as to what you find out. Good Luck!

 

[Bulldog]

So another words it is the top lift arm pins that link the upper portion of the loader to the loader frame upright posts. That makes more sense now.

What kind of grease are you using and what is the NLGI # on the tube?
#2 is the most common but a #1 or #0 can be found and depending on which you have it could really make a big difference on the performance that you recieve.

If you have been greasing it that much you shouldn't be having any type of problem from the pins lacking grease. It sounds like the grease may be your trouble. The base stock of the grease is what causes the trouble in most cases. We had some at one time that had a (believe this or not) clay base stock. When it was put under pressure on loader booms or under pressure and heat in bearings that were under a heavy load it would dry out and look just like dirt that you would dig straight up from the ground. I greased my loader two and sometimes three times a day and this junk would still stop the bushings up. I don't know how many times I have had to take the pins out and drive the bushings out and use a drill to open the grease veins back up.

Keep us posted about this.

 

[Falk781]

Thanks alot for everyone's help. It's odd because this hasn't happened except in the past 3 weeks or so, once I got over the 50 hour mark. When I looked in the manual, it said that NLGI and NLGI2 was acceptable and there were two sets of letters, but I can't remember which, and I'm travelling at the moment until Thursday. Maybe they were PL/CL or something along those lines. The grease that I have been using met the NLGI and the letters, whatever they happened to be, but I don't think it was NLGI 2.

I was an auto tech for a long time and this is the same type of grease that we used for really everything including ball joints, pitman/idler/ujoints and other steering and suspension components, but I'm wondering if it just isn't heavy duty enough to handle the riggors of the FEL.

When I get back in town, I'm going to first, try the more heavy duty grease. If that doesn't work, I'll pull the pins, then report back either way.

To answer the question posed, the pins are the ones that connect to the frame uprights around the "cab" area.

 

[Marty394]

I recently switched from a chassis grease we used in the shop to a Lucas product called RED N Tacky. It seems to be more sticky so as to not get pounded out as easily. So far so good.

Bob

 

[Bulldog]

This may be helpful but to say the least it's interesting.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=65vTGLz1kJ8&feature=related

 

[Falk781]

Thanks again for everyone's help. so when I got back in town , I stopped by the parts store and picked up some CRC Extreme Pressure Moly Graph grease. It is a NLGI 2 grease and by the way, I did some research on the other grease that I reported on and found out that it also, was an NLGI 2 product.

Having said that I pulled the right side pin and found that only half of it was getting grease. I also found out that the bushing was covered in paint from the factory paint job. In an effort to not mar the bushing, I left the paint on there that was already starting to peel, cleaned and wiped it out and hand greased it. I also emory clothed the pin and brake cleaned it. The grease fitting was flowing with no blockage.

I then pumped them up as much as I could and cycled the FEL. I got it down to just making noise at idle raise and lower. When you throttled up, it didn't make noise. After about 15 more cycles of up and down along with pumping grease, the noise went away. I ordered 69 tons of 2B yesterday and moved 3/4 of it with no noise. I also saw no indication of pitting or premature wear on the pins or bushings.

In closure, it's a wait and see game, but so far it looks ok and I don't know that I can condemn the grease. Wondering if Kubota can come up with a better design... The grease products I was using were the following:

CRC # SL3330
Valvoline # VV609