Hello
I have two small vintage riding lawn mower called a Ride King. I currently have a gearbox open on one of them so I can replace the seals for the output with NOS parts I purchased off eBay.
However, I believe that it will mostly likely still leak as the shaft seals this machine use are not spring loaded and therefore are meant for grease not oil. I run 140W gear oil (GL-4 Hypoid) you see not grease.
Swisher once sold their own blend of gear lube (Part# TR124L) for these machines but is it no longer available. I emailed Swisher and was told it was a trade secret and that I could use 140W gear oil instead, but it wouldn’t be as good due to high operating temperatures caused by the small size of the gearbox.
I had this gearbox open about a year ago to replace the worm and gear inside as they were badly worn due to lack of lube when I got the machine. This time when I opened it up I noticed the remaining oil that hadn’t leaked out from sitting in storage looked dirty and appeared to have very very fine metal particles mixed in but, the gears don’t appear to be badly worn. So, I’m not sure if that’s just the nature of this beast, my lube is inadequate or some kind of break-in from the NOS gears put in a year ago.
In a pdf scan I found of the manual it states:
Quote:
The gear box must have an extreme pressure oil with a high lead content. Your gear box will normally run hot (100 degrees about surrounding temperatures).
I thought about packing it with corn head grease or graphite or mixing one of the two with half gear oil but, wasn’t sure if that was a good idea or not.
On my other Ride King, it’s still running the lube it had when I bought it. I’m not sure what it is. It could be that Swisher stuff.. it could be just automotive grease. I’m not sure but, it’s black and goopy and doesn’t seem to leak out as fast.
It also states:
Quote:
The gearbox on drive unit should be check- each twenty hours of operation.
I personally check everytime before I mow and I usually have to top it off every other week.
So, there you have it. What would be best oil, grease, mixture? If anyone on this forum could make a suggestion on what lube would best fit this application I’d sure appreciate it. Thanks.
I have two small vintage riding lawn mower called a Ride King. I currently have a gearbox open on one of them so I can replace the seals for the output with NOS parts I purchased off eBay.
However, I believe that it will mostly likely still leak as the shaft seals this machine use are not spring loaded and therefore are meant for grease not oil. I run 140W gear oil (GL-4 Hypoid) you see not grease.
Swisher once sold their own blend of gear lube (Part# TR124L) for these machines but is it no longer available. I emailed Swisher and was told it was a trade secret and that I could use 140W gear oil instead, but it wouldn’t be as good due to high operating temperatures caused by the small size of the gearbox.
I had this gearbox open about a year ago to replace the worm and gear inside as they were badly worn due to lack of lube when I got the machine. This time when I opened it up I noticed the remaining oil that hadn’t leaked out from sitting in storage looked dirty and appeared to have very very fine metal particles mixed in but, the gears don’t appear to be badly worn. So, I’m not sure if that’s just the nature of this beast, my lube is inadequate or some kind of break-in from the NOS gears put in a year ago.
In a pdf scan I found of the manual it states:
Quote:
The gear box must have an extreme pressure oil with a high lead content. Your gear box will normally run hot (100 degrees about surrounding temperatures).
I thought about packing it with corn head grease or graphite or mixing one of the two with half gear oil but, wasn’t sure if that was a good idea or not.
On my other Ride King, it’s still running the lube it had when I bought it. I’m not sure what it is. It could be that Swisher stuff.. it could be just automotive grease. I’m not sure but, it’s black and goopy and doesn’t seem to leak out as fast.
It also states:
Quote:
The gearbox on drive unit should be check- each twenty hours of operation.
I personally check everytime before I mow and I usually have to top it off every other week.
So, there you have it. What would be best oil, grease, mixture? If anyone on this forum could make a suggestion on what lube would best fit this application I’d sure appreciate it. Thanks.