SEE Grease Points

[peakbagger]

I have been spending some time locating all the grease points. There is reminder in the PS articles about the two grease points that tend to be forgotten under the center of the truck. They put grease to the sealed front ad rear prop shaft joints. One is fairly obvious but the other one took awhile even with the diagrams in the TMs. I couldn't see it underneath. After feeling around for awhile I could feel the fitting on the top of transmission casting but getting a grease gun on it wasn't going to happen. I finally figured out that if I rotate the backhoe to deployed conditions I can reach down behind the tool box and jerry can mount and just reach the fitting. I expect it doesn't get much grease given that the manuals don't give this hint. The PS article warns not to overgrease, just 4 to 5 pumps with standard grease gun.

The fitting in question is the rear one.

 

[The FLU farm]

Thanks for the reminder, Peakbagger! I'm about to lube the parts SEE and would likely have forgot about that Zerk.
Not having that pesky spare tire in the way makes it easier to get to, without raising the backhoe. Of course, it needs to be raised to be properly lubed, but I rarely get the loader, chassis, and backhoe lubed on the same day.

 

[peakbagger]

I expect a lot of these SEEs that have been sitting for years in a storage lot are in need of good greasing in general. The lubrication instructions manual is actually worth printing out. I would have never found the hidden zerk on the rear prop shaft without the picture. I think I have found all the loader and backhoe points except for the dipper bucket pivot that hidden until the backhoe is deployed.

Up in my area there are lot of old timers who buy everything cash and run their machines for years. Everyone I have run into are sticklers about greasing their rigs. A lot of the larger firms use hired crews and have leased equipment and lubrication gets skipped.

 

[The FLU farm]

I read about that Zerk fitting somewhere, probably in the manual, or I would've likely missed it.

Anyway, grease is cheap, and so am I. That's why I lube everything often, so I won't need to replace worn out stuff.
Actually, I'm much more likely to wear out the Zerk fittings than what they supply.

Although, sometimes lubing is a pain. On my tractor, for example, it says to lube the loader every 10 hours.
Well, that's all fine for the first two or three days, but eventually you end up getting out of bed at 2 AM to lube the **** thing - only to do it again at noon.
Every 12 hours would be a more humane interval.

 

[peakbagger]

I rarely plan to ever use the loader for 10 hours straight. The SEE sits a lot and my goal is to give it good greasing prior to use to drive any moisture and junk out of the joints. I expect a lot of these SEEs didn't get much actual use of the loader and the backhoe so we are pretty well starting with new unworn equipment. That's one of the reason I bought one, when I was looking at used crawler loaders in this price range, they all had lot of hours, usually on the third owner and in general they were beat. With a SEE, the expensive stuff is brand new, its all the rubber that seems to have gotten most of the damage from sitting. The wiring on the other hand was a surprise that I would have gladly avoided.

 

[The FLU farm]

I rarely plan to ever use the loader for 10 hours straight. The SEE sits a lot and my goal is to give it good greasing prior to use to drive any moisture and junk out of the joints. I expect a lot of these SEEs didn't get much actual use of the loader and the backhoe so we are pretty well starting with new unworn equipment. That's one of the reason I bought one, when I was looking at used crawler loaders in this price range, they all had lot of hours, usually on the third owner and in general they were beat. With a SEE, the expensive stuff is brand new, its all the rubber that seems to have gotten most of the damage from sitting. The wiring on the other hand was a surprise that I would have gladly avoided.

No, that would probably require adding fuel before 10 hours were up. But the problem with my tractor's loader is that it doesn't call for lubing it every 10 hours of use. That would make sense.
Instead it says to lube it every 10 hours, period.

Anyway, in my case I needed a backhoe. But, as you point out, used equipment is both worn and (usually) expensive.
The biggie is that I don't like backhoes. Yes, they're perfect for what they're designed to do, but I just don't like them.
When finding out that there was such a thing as a SEE, the choice was easy. As a long-time four wheeler, the Unimog I could relate to.
Little did I realize how much better a real backhoe is for what I'm doing, but locking the rear suspension will hopefully help making the SEE more suitable for me. Only one way to find out.