Changed my mind about pre-lube after hitting 5,000 hours on a Link-Belt

I always thought pre-lubing swing bearings was a waste of time and grease. Figured if it wasn't squealing it was fine. Then I hit 5,000 hours on my 218 HSL and pulled the bearing for a look. There was so much dry wear I had to replace the whole race. That $50 tube of grease I skipped probably cost me $3,000 and three days of downtime. Anyone else learn that lesson the hard way?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey34218d ago

Man, that's rough but I gotta ask - did you actually check the grease channels before you put it all back together? Cause I've seen guys swap a bearing and still have the same problem a year later because the old dried grease was plugging up the zerk fittings. You'd be surprised how many people skip that step and wonder why their new bearing wears out just as fast. My own mechanic caught that on my machine once, flushed the whole system with solvent first, then pre-lubed it. That bearing is still going strong at 8,000 hours now. Makes you wonder how many of these failures are really just maintenance mistakes stacking up over time.

cora_west518d ago

Yeah, "maintenance mistakes stacking up over time" nails it. Most failures are just slow neglect catching up.

milesbarnes18d ago

Wait, hold on. You're telling me people actually put a new bearing in without checking the grease channels first? That's crazy. I mean, I've been around machinery for a while and I've seen some dumb stuff, but that takes the cake. Flushing with solvent before reassembly seems like the kind of thing that would be common sense, but I guess not. No wonder so many bearings fail early if half the guys out there are just slapping a new part on top of all that old crud. That 8,000 hour bearing you mentioned is a perfect example of what happens when you do it right.