Mule drive on a 1650 adding zerk ftgs?
 

Good afternoon,

Does anyone grease or add zerk fittings to the idler pulley? My original idler in the mower deck disn't get grease, but was drilled for a zerk.
Seems to me that it would wear better on the mule drive idler if I added a zerk to force grease into the pivot/bearing area.

Michael

On all the Mule Drives that I have, the Idler Pulley Bearings are "sealed". :bigthink:

What are you talking about?? You mention the mule drive idler pulleys, then you start talking about the idler on the deck. Which is it? The idler on the deck or the mule??

You can't just add a zerk to a idler to grease the bearing. The bearing has to also have a hole pre-made into it to allow the grease to get to the roller balls. Just simply adding a zerk and pumping grease will do nothing.

Now, if you are talking about the pivot points for the tension..... Why grease? Just use some oil. It works fine.

Whenever I "go through" an attachment that has "sealed bearings",,, I do lube them.

I put the bearing on the workbench, and flood the area at the seal of the bearing with synthetic 90WT gear oil.
The oil will pass the seal, and lube the bearing.
Sometimes, it takes several days for the oil to penetrate, but, it always does, eventually.
I have done dozens of bearings like this over the last 20 years,, and I have never had to replace one of these serviced bearings.

I do mine with one of these. You can usually slip it in under the rubber seal with little or no damage.

I use a syringe filled with ball bearing grease and thin diabetic needle.
Saved a lot of old bearings on my 40+ year old farm equipment.

I like that idea....just ordered one and got some good Synthetic Grease to go with it..

I use one of those on a lot of our older farm equipment also. As long as you have rubber seals and not shields they work great!

My BIL got tired of loosing "sealed" bearings on the JD combine during harvest.
He would drill a small hole in the shield, lube with the grease gun needle, then add a dab of silicone over the hole.

His bearing loss went to close to zero.

There are a LOT of bearings on a combine,,, :bigeyes:

I think ANY lube is better than no lube!! :bigthink:

Are you guys sure that the OP don't mean the pivot arm the idler bearing is mounted on??