Need to vent a little here, sorry! Why is it that some people seem to think if you fail to grease a machine at regular intervals you can make up for the lack of grease by pumping several pounds of excess grease in the fitting to make up for the lack of grease? Was starting to wash up a WA-600 Komatsu to replace a couple hoses that had been seeping a little oil near the crimped on fittings. After a little time with pressure washer decided I'd better clean off some of the clumps around the center pin area. I was able to more than fill a large shoe box with what was mostly fresh clean grease that looked like it had just come out of the grease gun! Come on it's not like this area is far removed from the grease fittings, lower one is right at the bearing area and the upper is maybe 16 inches away right at eye level.:Banghead I've had people tell me they don't have a problem with seeing a machine with gobs of grease on it like this one. They say at least they know it is getting greased. But what I see too often is nobody seems to feel the need to grease a machine until they can hear the screeching of the bucket pins over the blaring radio or their cell phone. Then they will pump the grease to it to be sure it gets to where it's needed. And just to be safe they will hit every fitting on the machine. I've tried to explain many times that on a loader only the fittings at the bucket and hoist and tilt cylinders need daily greasing, most others once a week or even less is more than enough. Just glad no one has seen the fan drive and idler pulley grease fittings or I would hate to think what the engine belts would look like! Rant over ,,,,for now!
I feel your pain but have seen the light. Auto lube systems take care of most of that. For many if not most operators unless they have to pay to fix it or get involved in the dirty work of repairing it they don't care. I've seen center joints get a little loose and the machine starts to buck on the seat back and then the operators get serious about grease. Unfortunately it's already too late. The other issue especially with all Komatsu machines is that once the joint squeals, it is ruined. The high alloy heat treated pin running against the high alloy bushing pulls up lumps of steel and they never quit squealing until replaced.
We used to install the auto lube systems on all new equipment but some pencil pushers decided they cost too much. In the last few years they have started putting them on the new major equipment again. The big problem I see with those systems is too many people think once installed you can ignor the machine as long as grease tube is full. Still needs someone to look at it once a day to be sure it is getting grease to the pivots. Some times I don't get to see a machine between 350 hour oil changes and if a line broke the day after I serviced machine it could run for several days before anyone said anything. I agree on the point about when you hear the noise it's more or less too late, might as well order new pin and bushing and schedule replacement at next service interval. Instead they will try to grease the **** out of it to make it last. Then by the time they decide to do something the bores are worn out and it's time to call the linebore guy!
Been there and done that also. The boys at Weyerhaeuser were just great at snapping the grease lines off in the woods and never fixing them.Sometimes you could hear the squalling joints from half a mile away. I was working for the dealer at that time so just considered it money in the bank. When I started in the business the then old timers would just say it was job security. I'm figuring in the near future the machines will have enough intelligence to tell the boss that the operator is a louse and should be let go. A little farther out and they will be autonomous and operators will be gone. At least that is what I tell the dumb operators.
As far as autonomous machines they are closer than you might think, pretty sure there are some haul trucks running like that already. As for machine telling the boss, we have a couple that can do that to a degree right now. If operator is abusing the transmission or running too hot they send an email to boss or myself. Also send notice a few days in advance of when the machine wants it's oil changed!