JOHN L. - The frt wheels of the '61 to '63 CC's used plain bronze bushings in the frt wheels, not ball baerings, so they needed to be greased occasionally. Many of the new ball bearings used in CC frt wheels are sealed on both the inside & outside, so greasing really won't help much. And even if the bearings are not sealed on the inside, any place you can install a grease zerk will be about 1-1/2 inches from the area between the inner & outer race, so you'd have to pump close to a pound of grease into the wheel to get grease into the bearing. ARemoving the frt wheels & tapping the bearings out and greasing the bearings by hand would be a better option.
Interesting side comment... SON took up nitro or "Gas 1/8th scale 4WD Buggy" R/C racing again this summer. He's competing in the Midwest Nitro series, currently in 9th place out of 70-80 drivers in the PRO class. His new Mugen MBX-7 and Reds .21 cid nitro engine were only getting about 6-7 minutes of run time from a tank of fuel. So about two weeks ago when he rebuilt the car before his last Nitro series race he pulled ALL the metal labrynth seals off of the bearings where they were enclosed in gear housings. And he put new Teflon sealed bearings in all the wheels with the seals towards the outside where they're exposed to LOTS of dust & dirt. So far after 2 weeks of racing there's no deterioration of the bearings and his run time has incresed to 9-1/2 to 10 minutes per tank of fuel. So careful removal of the shields from sealed ball bearings can reduce rolling friction as much as 25%, maybe a bit more. And that increase allows him to race with fewer pit stops, attain higher speeds in the straights, and finish higher in the points series. His goal is to have major sponsorship for next year's racing season.
How that effects our CC's, well, it ay help a 7 or 8 HP CC mow taller grass as opposed to dropping a 10 HP engine in. It will reduce gas usage whatever size engine you run.
MIKE - If you've looked closely at a zerk, they have a spring-loaded check ball to keep dirt out and grease in the zerk. And actually, it's good practice to smear a little dab of grease over the outside of the zerk to prevent dust/dirt from getting inside the zerk. As you say, wipe that grease & dirt away before greasing the zerk again. What hurts is on unprotected lube points like the frt axle center pivot pin & frt wheel spindles, there's no seal around where the grease escapes, which allows grease to attract & hold dirt close to the machined surfaces your lubing. If your CC is a trailer queen, then you don't have to grease your tractor but maybe once a year, but my working tractors get greased every time I mow. Grease actually makes a real nice paint protectant. The only time I remove the accumulated grease & dirt is during major rebuilds. I may soak a shop towel in Brake-Clean and wipe some dirt/grease off occasionally, but if you push any of that dirty contaminated grease back into the assembly, well, that's just not good.
Worst environment I EVER saw a machine run in was a potato harvester. They use bent 1/2" dia rods for conveyor links to elevate the dug potatoes up and sift out all the dirt, sand, & weeds. Those links ran over roller sprockets any place they changed direction, like at the bottom when running 6-8 inches under the surface of the ground. NO sealed bearing can withstand the constant barrage of dirt like that, so they run them dry, with dissimilar metals like hardened steel shafts & chilled cast iron sprockets to resist wear. Works really well.
On the center pivot pin & frt wheel spindles the wear surfaces are somewhat protected from having dirt adhere to the thin layer of grease directly on the wear surface, but on those heim joints, the top & bottom portion of the bearing surface is directly exposed, so a thin layer of grease will allow dirt to accumualte right on the wear surfaces, eventually contaminating the whole surface. As you say, My opinion. I oiled my heim joints on my 72 once.... mowed for a half hour, stopped and wiped ALL the oil I could off of them... and the dirt the oil attacted & held, then went back to mowing.
Far as a "boot" to cover them, not sure they really need them, nor have I ever seen any, but if it reduces the joints exposure to dirt they couldn't hurt.
Interesting side comment... SON took up nitro or "Gas 1/8th scale 4WD Buggy" R/C racing again this summer. He's competing in the Midwest Nitro series, currently in 9th place out of 70-80 drivers in the PRO class. His new Mugen MBX-7 and Reds .21 cid nitro engine were only getting about 6-7 minutes of run time from a tank of fuel. So about two weeks ago when he rebuilt the car before his last Nitro series race he pulled ALL the metal labrynth seals off of the bearings where they were enclosed in gear housings. And he put new Teflon sealed bearings in all the wheels with the seals towards the outside where they're exposed to LOTS of dust & dirt. So far after 2 weeks of racing there's no deterioration of the bearings and his run time has incresed to 9-1/2 to 10 minutes per tank of fuel. So careful removal of the shields from sealed ball bearings can reduce rolling friction as much as 25%, maybe a bit more. And that increase allows him to race with fewer pit stops, attain higher speeds in the straights, and finish higher in the points series. His goal is to have major sponsorship for next year's racing season.
How that effects our CC's, well, it ay help a 7 or 8 HP CC mow taller grass as opposed to dropping a 10 HP engine in. It will reduce gas usage whatever size engine you run.
MIKE - If you've looked closely at a zerk, they have a spring-loaded check ball to keep dirt out and grease in the zerk. And actually, it's good practice to smear a little dab of grease over the outside of the zerk to prevent dust/dirt from getting inside the zerk. As you say, wipe that grease & dirt away before greasing the zerk again. What hurts is on unprotected lube points like the frt axle center pivot pin & frt wheel spindles, there's no seal around where the grease escapes, which allows grease to attract & hold dirt close to the machined surfaces your lubing. If your CC is a trailer queen, then you don't have to grease your tractor but maybe once a year, but my working tractors get greased every time I mow. Grease actually makes a real nice paint protectant. The only time I remove the accumulated grease & dirt is during major rebuilds. I may soak a shop towel in Brake-Clean and wipe some dirt/grease off occasionally, but if you push any of that dirty contaminated grease back into the assembly, well, that's just not good.
Worst environment I EVER saw a machine run in was a potato harvester. They use bent 1/2" dia rods for conveyor links to elevate the dug potatoes up and sift out all the dirt, sand, & weeds. Those links ran over roller sprockets any place they changed direction, like at the bottom when running 6-8 inches under the surface of the ground. NO sealed bearing can withstand the constant barrage of dirt like that, so they run them dry, with dissimilar metals like hardened steel shafts & chilled cast iron sprockets to resist wear. Works really well.
On the center pivot pin & frt wheel spindles the wear surfaces are somewhat protected from having dirt adhere to the thin layer of grease directly on the wear surface, but on those heim joints, the top & bottom portion of the bearing surface is directly exposed, so a thin layer of grease will allow dirt to accumualte right on the wear surfaces, eventually contaminating the whole surface. As you say, My opinion. I oiled my heim joints on my 72 once.... mowed for a half hour, stopped and wiped ALL the oil I could off of them... and the dirt the oil attacted & held, then went back to mowing.
Far as a "boot" to cover them, not sure they really need them, nor have I ever seen any, but if it reduces the joints exposure to dirt they couldn't hurt.
