This is probably a dumb question but curious as to what greases the gear and ring inside the swing bearing. I know there are 2 grease certs that we keep greased religiously that grease the bearing but I didnt think that grease would completely get to this area. There is always grease coming out of the ring on the outside so Im assuming this is what greases the gear on the inside ? Thanks for any help.
The grease that comes out of the swing bearing is from the grease fittings that you mentioned. Those are strictly for greasing the swing bearing itself. There is a grease cavity where the swing gear is that has a large amount of open gear grease in it that is picked up by the swing pinion as it spins around. Most excavators have a small cover on the main frame that you unbolt and check/add grease every 500hrs. I buy tubes of texclad and use a caulking gun to squirt it in. There should be a spec on how much grease is in there depending on your machine.
On older Cats, (215, etc.) there are two grease fittings in the floor of the cab. One fitting connects to the swing bearing, the other connects to a tub that surrounds the swing pinion.
I appreciate guys... Ill look tomorrow and see if I can find it. Thanks for the response.
What are you working on? I'm sure one of us can tell you exactly where to look and make life easy.
Hey Deeretracks..... You bet, its a ex 300-3 hitachi. Im all about anything makin life easy ! Thank ya sir.
Ok Deeretracks, looks like this ones yours!
Sheesh. Been a long time since I worked on one but IIRC it should be right between the boom cyls. It's a rounded diamond shaped cover plate with 2 bolts.
Yep...Found it...right on target. Thats a tough spot to get grease into. Im gonna try the caulking gun with a grease tube and just let her rip and make a big ole mess. Any other slick (pun intended) trick I can try besides this method ? Thanks !
The spec on our 270 is something g like 45 Tubes of grease to fill the cavity. I used a bulk air greaser the last time I changed ours and just kept pumping till It filled the recessed cavity that the pinion turns in. I don't grease our swing bearing everyday either as it can push the o-ring out in there. Our owners manual says every 500 hours I think. Obviously I do it more then that though.
While you may look at it as a big hole to just dump grease in, it can be over done with not so good results. The older EX- 400 had a real bad habit of blowing out the bottom drive seal for the swing drive pinion. If I remember DTAC said that when the gear teeth would mesh while swinging, it would force the grease out and it ha to go somewhere, it would force it`s way up the shaftand past the seal. As the bottom seal is installed as an oil seal, the lip is facing away from the pinion so yes it would be able to shove grease past it. I know I had to clean out 3 or 4 of them and refill the grease to spec level.
I was thinking also that most only fill to about 1/4" up on the swing box gear, and as it swings it works the grease up between the main bearing teeth. Seems you could see the grove in the grease swirl after swinging around several times and removing the inspection plate and looking or using a small mirror and looking back at the gear. I also would not fill it full.
for the excavators that have grease fittings, how do you know when enough is enough?