brushcutter gear case grease

I

ironman_gq

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Apr 30, 2014
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Rebuilding the gear head on a shindaiwa brush cutter (bike bar "trimmer" with a blade). Wondering what people's thoughts are for the new grease in there. This thing gets used hard cutting wrist poplar and red willow up to 3" diameter with a lot of shock loading on the gear case. Rebuilding it because the pinion and crown gear decided to shed all their teeth rather spectacularly.

On hand I have
Green grease
aeroshell 33
various mystic synthetics
Or do I go the route of just picking up a tube of Stihl's trimmer head grease and call it a day? Didn't have any leakage with what was in it but it did look fairly degraded and a bit soupy where it had been chewed on by the gears. I will say the gearcase gets too hot to touch in our normal use.
 
Boy, it's anyone's guess. I suppose a professional that runs their equipment daily/weekly would have the best data. Maybe check out Arboristsite.com.

At my workplace, I use an older Stihl FS 250 with metal blade to cut 1/2 acre of hybrid poplar whips annually, and then heavy weed whipping through the growing season with the hard plastic Stihl blades. Nothing like a pro trimming every day.

I got tired of overthinking all this stuff 2 decades ago. I use the over priced Stihl grease in a tube. It probably lasts me about 5 years, lubing the head about twice annually. The exorbitant price spread over 5 years is easy to deal with. Never had to replace a gear head. Sorry I cannot provide data.

I prefer the Stihl chisel tooth trimmer blade, which is DIY sharpened with a round file, similar to chainsaw sharpening:
1713404606574.jpeg
 
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I use this in trimmer and brush cutter heads, my local dealer has it for a good price but Amazon does as well:

www.echo-usa.com

Red Armor Lubricant | ECHO

Keep gearcases, cables, ball bearings and more properly lubricated for ultimate performance. Learn more about the Red Armor Lubricant at ECHO.
www.echo-usa.com www.echo-usa.com
 
I have been just using the Amsoil water resistant grease in my Honda brush cutter. I have never rebuilt it, just inject every once in awhile. I did cut a crud load of blackberry bushes here about a month ago. I worked it hard. Hopefully I don't shear the gears.........
 
Get a tube that threads into the fill hole. Refill when it is blistering hot. I use echo red armor, but stihl has a treaded tube.
 
I have a tube of Echo tool head grease I use in all my line trimmers and brush cutters. No idea of it's composition, but at the rate I'm using it up, it will last a long time and I don't think it was that expensive.
 
ironman_gq said:
Rebuilding the gear head on a shindaiwa brush cutter (bike bar "trimmer" with a blade). Wondering what people's thoughts are for the new grease in there. This thing gets used hard cutting wrist poplar and red willow up to 3" diameter with a lot of shock loading on the gear case. Rebuilding it because the pinion and crown gear decided to shed all their teeth rather spectacularly.

On hand I have
Green grease
aeroshell 33
various mystic synthetics
Or do I go the route of just picking up a tube of Stihl's trimmer head grease and call it a day? Didn't have any leakage with what was in it but it did look fairly degraded and a bit soupy where it had been chewed on by the gears. I will say the gearcase gets too hot to touch in our normal use.
Click to expand...
I would think the Stihl head grease would be a great option unless it's really just lithium grease with the Stihl logo.
 
EP Lithium Grease is what brush cutter gearboxes use. Do not install a grease zirc in the gearbox or thread anything into the hole. Simply remove the plug, put the grease gun over the open hole, and pump the grease in until it is full. You do not want to pump the grease in under pressure or you risk forcing the grease seals out, you just want to fill it.
 
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