Greasing weedwhacker gears

[Oldtom]

I have a straight shaft Craftsman weedwhacker that is 6 years old and used hard. Lately, I noticed the gear housing gets hot after an hour or two of use. I can still touch the housing but, it is fairly hot. Youtube videos advise you to remove the plug in the gear housing and pump in generic grease from a grease gun until the excess oozes out around the seal.

Does regular wheel bearing grease work for this application? What about compatibility with the factory grease?

I keep a grease gun filled with Lucas Red N Tacky wheel bearing grease for my trailer hubs. Will this work or do I need SPECIAL UNICORN TEARS WEEDWHACKER GREASE?

Thank you in advance for any advice and dealing with my mechanical OCD and analysis paralysis

 

[andyd]

Use what you have in the gun. Any grease is better than no grease.

 

[LotI]

Echo recommends lithium based grease, or their own of course.

My brand new trimmer gearbox gets warm too, it's what they do.

 

[tom slick]

If you can touch it then it is not too hot.

 

[onemig]

 

[Ramblejam]

Originally Posted By: Oldtom
I keep a grease gun filled with Lucas Red N Tacky wheel bearing grease for my trailer hubs. Will this work or do I need SPECIAL UNICORN TEARS WEEDWHACKER GREASE?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLGI_consistency_number

The issue is that your Lucas is NLGI #2, which is simply too thick; NLGI #0 would be appropriate.

 

[Kamele0N]

Just use Nlgi 0 lithium moly grease....

 

[Panzerman]

I would think any grease would work there.

 

[Kamele0N]

Indeed...but originally they put in lithium moly/graphite grease

 

[Lubener]

May not be anything wrong, my Craftsman get warm after 20 minutes.After an hour or two, any gear case is going to get warm.

 

[freshcopedawg]

Use the Stihl Superlube.