Hydraulic Puller Questions

[Turbo]

Using the colour of the grease to determine the type is going to be as effective as trying to figuring which fruit someone owns based solely on the description of 'it's round'...

I've seen bearing greases that're red, blue, black, dark brown, light brown and clear - and possibly more that I can't remember. I've seen both blue and red grease that turns black when it's been used, you couldn't tell that it started life as a different colour.

So, that means that it's necessary to either find out what the correct type is or work out what's best, rather than taking wild guesses.
I can't see why rubber grease would be suitable for a puller, a good quality general purpose grease seems appropriate in my mind. Longlife complex, high temperature stuff from Morris never seems to let me down.

Choosing the grease by colour was tongue in cheek, I'm well aware that the colour in grease is just whatever dye the maker has chosen to add. Like you I have used all colours of bearing grease & it differs by manufacturer apart from food safe grease, it's usually white (and useless as a lubricant ).

I do happen to have some (light brown ) castrol longlife high temp grease in the gun at the moment, that might be worth a try. I also have a little bit of a high quality rocol (blue ) bearing grease which should be better as it's a bit thicker and from what I recall it was quite expensive!

But thanks for your advice, it will educate others in the world of greases!

 

[Seadog]

Choosing the grease by colour was tongue in cheek

However, Prem did associate that comment with the possibility of rubber seals disintegrating.

 

[premmington]

However, Prem did associate that comment with the possibility of rubber seals disintegrating.

Very true....

"The SP grease they sell in the repair kits is RED in colour - would guess it is silicon grease? (not sure thou?).

I guess silicon because - anything mineral would attack the O-rings in the ram, maybe? (O-rings are black not green in the kit)."


I bought the repair kits from SP - so I got the right grease.

But to be fair - the grease I took out was sort of "black in colour".

 

[Dcal]

The grease might be rubber grease, any I've used is red and you can see how it would suit the application

 

[Seadog]

I'll stick my neck out here and say "grease is grease" and incompressible.

 

[premmington]

I'll stick my neck and here and say "grease is grease" and incompressible.

I agree with you Seadog - for a small thread operated pressure ram - any grease I had lying about would do!



I put brake fluid in trolley jacks when desperate...

The only reason I got the "red grease" was because it came in a repair kit from SP - with the seals I needed - melted - using the puller in anger.

Cannot see really why you would want to repack these rams unless the seals had failed thou?

 

[8ob]

I'll stick my neck out here and say "grease is grease" and incompressible.

I agree with you Seadog - for a small thread operated pressure ram - any grease I had lying about would do!



I put brake fluid in trolley jacks when desperate...

The only reason I got the "red grease" was because it came in a repair kit from SP - with the seals I needed - melted - using the puller in anger.

Cannot see really why you would want to repack these rams unless the seals had failed thou?

It does make you wonder When you think that UTO, UTTO and STOU universal tractor oils are ok in engines,gearboxes, axles and hydraulics as a one oil does all. Its also as harsh an environment as you could possibly get

Bob

 

[premmington]

It does make you wonder When you think that UTO, UTTO and STOU universal tractor oils are ok in engines,gearboxes, axles and hydraulics as a one oil does all. Its also as harsh an environment as you could possibly get

Bob

That is a valid point Bob - about tractor oils - I have often wondered this myself!

I own a car repair garage - and have about 7 - 200ltr drums of engine oil open at any one time - all differing grades and spec - warranty work needs the right oil spec.

 

[merryman]

It does make you wonder When you think that UTO, UTTO and STOU universal tractor oils are ok in engines,gearboxes, axles and hydraulics as a one oil does all. Its also as harsh an environment as you could possibly get

Whilst a lot of the stuff about various types of mineral oil can be taken with a pinch of salt, there is a big difference between hydraulic fluid and hydraulic oil. The point about that red rubber grease is it is for brakes.

 

[8ob]

Whilst a lot of the stuff about various types of mineral oil can be taken with a pinch of salt, there is a big difference between hydraulic fluid and hydraulic oil. The point about that red rubber grease is it is for brakes.

Not a place to take risks and point taken .

Bob

 

[Turbo]

I used to use silicon grease to grease oil seals & o-rings to ease assembly. Repair kits for festo air rams came with a little tube of it & you always had some left over after rebuilding a ram. The partly used tubes somehow found their way into my pocket & into my grease box at home.

Sadly that supply dried up long ago & I use the red rubber grease instead. It doesn't last as long as the silicon grease but at least it doesn't attack the rubber.

I remember when I worked for Karcher servicing washers, they supplied a 'special grease' for putting on the pump seals to ease assembly & help them bed in. It was a crazy price, something like £50 for a 50ml tube & that was 25 years ago so you used it sparingly! Looking back now it was probably just expensive silicon grease & Karcher were ripping us off!

They are still selling it at a rip-off price.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Genuine-Ka...mbly-Grease/519934135?iid=272519793623&chn=ps

£12 for 5g!

 

[Bill Edwards]

It does make you wonder When you think that UTO, UTTO and STOU universal tractor oils are ok in engines,gearboxes, axles and hydraulics as a one oil does all. Its also as harsh an environment as you could possibly get

Bob

That is a valid point Bob - about tractor oils - I have often wondered this myself!

I own a car repair garage - and have about 7 - 200ltr drums of engine oil open at any one time - all differing grades and spec - warranty work needs the right oil spec.

I suspect that dedicated lubricants work better - i.e that say Universal Tractor Transmission Oil will be better for gearbox, diff, hydraulics and wet brakes than say Super Tractor Oil Universal that can do all the above but also be used in engines. I don't know exactly how oil is engineered but I suspect that adding stuff to deal with wet brakes and also adding stuff to deal with engine loads and combustion into the same oil probably isn't ideal. It works, but I do suspect that dedicated oils are better.

Of course, having one oil that can do everything on a tractor is still best, because so many farmers are too ignorant and short sighted to use the correct oils that they'll use one oil for everything, so it's best that the machine is designed to use that as best they can because the alternative is to get filled with the wrong stuff.

 

[Turbo]

I suspect that dedicated lubricants work better - i.e that say Universal Tractor Transmission Oil will be better for gearbox, diff, hydraulics and wet brakes than say Super Tractor Oil Universal that can do all the above but also be used in engines. I don't know exactly how oil is engineered but I suspect that adding stuff to deal with wet brakes and also adding stuff to deal with engine loads and combustion into the same oil probably isn't ideal. It works, but I do suspect that dedicated oils are better.

Of course, having one oil that can do everything on a tractor is still best, because so many farmers are too ignorant and short sighted to use the correct oils that they'll use one oil for everything, so it's best that the machine is designed to use that as best they can because the alternative is to get filled with the wrong stuff.

You forgot too add that farmers are too tight to buy more than one oil!

Another reason for using super universal oil is when there are several tractors swapping between implements that have hydraulics like trailers. If one tractor using hydraulic oil for its hydraulics used a trailer that had been used by another tractor its hydraulic oil would get contaminated by whatever oil the other tractor was using.

 

[8ob]

I suspect that dedicated lubricants work better - i.e that say Universal Tractor Transmission Oil will be better for gearbox, diff, hydraulics and wet brakes than say Super Tractor Oil Universal that can do all the above but also be used in engines. I don't know exactly how oil is engineered but I suspect that adding stuff to deal with wet brakes and also adding stuff to deal with engine loads and combustion into the same oil probably isn't ideal. It works, but I do suspect that dedicated oils are better.

Of course, having one oil that can do everything on a tractor is still best, because so many farmers are too ignorant and short sighted to use the correct oils that they'll use one oil for everything, so it's best that the machine is designed to use that as best they can because the alternative is to get filled with the wrong stuff.

Bill I am not so sure about " work better", I thinks its more about being adequate for the job. I have an old tractor that has a truck based Perkins Phaser 6 pot turbo engine run on UTO, its still good with 15,000 hours of very hard use without a rebuild and Perkins life the engine @10,000hours. Perkins spec a different oil for the same engine when its in a truck than the tractor manufacturers do. I dont think overspec oils will prolong engine life, we use 10/40 fleet oil in everything else from trucks down to small petrol engines again have no problems with engine failures.

Bob

 

[Turbo]

I thought I'd post an update on this.

I bought the £75 set & it arrived in a few days. The plastic box could have been better made, the stuff stored in the lid falls out & I had to do some duct tape engineering to cure that.

Overall the construction & finish is quite good. I had some concerns about the slack fit of the nuts, see here.
https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/m12-x-2mm-thread.88384/#post-1283230

But the puller has been used several times without any issues & worked every time.

That was until I tried to remove a motor pulley this week. It was on a 24mm shaft, 70mm deep & has been stuck in place for quite a few years. It was soaked in penetrating oil then I tried the cheap pullers on it. It didn't budge & the pullers were starting to twist quite a bit.

I was about to reach for the red wrench but instead decided to try the sykes pickavant set. The pulley gave a couple of cracks then it came off effortlessly. Afterwards I could almost hear the sykes one say 'Is that all you got?'

There's quite a difference on size but the lack of rigidity in the cheap set showed up on this occasion.

The pulley was well rusted on!

 

[winchman]

Winchboy and I go to a few Carboots and a lot of Autojumbles, if we ever see any parts of a SP puller we buy them, so after about 5 years we now have quite a large set and up until now we have never failed, they are worth the extra but the cost V usage often lead people to buy a cheaper one. I am sure we have a smaller SP bearing bit from memory we have 3 different sizes?

 

[premmington]

Winchboy and I go to a few Carboots and a lot of Autojumbles, if we ever see any parts of a SP puller we buy them, so after about 5 years we now have quite a large set and up until now we have never failed, they are worth the extra but the cost V usage often lead people to buy a cheaper one. I am sure we have a smaller SP bearing bit from memory we have 3 different sizes?

I too have amassed a huge set of SP pullers over 30years - all secondhand - all bought from auctions and internet sites.

SP stuff is worth the money...

 

[Munkul]

SP quality has gone downhill for a lot of things, but the pullers are still good. I keep looking out for sets as well!