.....or the lack thereof!
This may have been brought up on another thread but I didn't bother to complete an exhaustive search.
While greasing the driveshaft(PTO side) bearing on my '11 Pro RMK 163 I've always noticed that the grease did not purge from around the seal in the bearing as you would expect. The grease always leaked out around the flange.
So this year I removed the outer flange / speed sensor housing to investigate & found that the original OEM bearing outer race was not equipped with a lube port. All of the greasing in the world would not help in this situation.
Despite receiving no additional grease from factory, the bearing was in good condition so I carefully removed the seal & put a few dabs of low temp. grease in the cavity & reinstalled the seal. It will likely be good for another few seasons.
Moral of the story - Don't assume a bearing is being properly lubricated unless you can see some spent grease purge from the seal & when replacing the bearing, ensure that it is equipped with a lube port on the outer race(see pic. below)
This may have been brought up on another thread but I didn't bother to complete an exhaustive search.
While greasing the driveshaft(PTO side) bearing on my '11 Pro RMK 163 I've always noticed that the grease did not purge from around the seal in the bearing as you would expect. The grease always leaked out around the flange.
So this year I removed the outer flange / speed sensor housing to investigate & found that the original OEM bearing outer race was not equipped with a lube port. All of the greasing in the world would not help in this situation.
Despite receiving no additional grease from factory, the bearing was in good condition so I carefully removed the seal & put a few dabs of low temp. grease in the cavity & reinstalled the seal. It will likely be good for another few seasons.
Moral of the story - Don't assume a bearing is being properly lubricated unless you can see some spent grease purge from the seal & when replacing the bearing, ensure that it is equipped with a lube port on the outer race(see pic. below)
