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Question on gear lube -- 90 EP vs 80W90 ESI
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WYDave
Posted 5/30/2006 01:29 (#15858)
Subject: Question on gear lube -- 90 EP vs 80W90 ESI


Wyoming

Here's a question for you guys with much more experience in lubes than I've got:

I have this Hesston 1360 mower-conditioner, with the super-deluxe tight-turn option that enables me to literally do 90+ degree turns without wrapping the PTO driveline U-joints. There are two 90 degree gearboxes that send the PTO driveline up a vertical axis, then back down the tongue of the mower -- so when I'm turning tight, I'm actually pivoting the tongue around the vertical shaft between these two gearboxes. This mower-conditioner calls for a minimum of 130 HP -- we usually run it with a minimum of 145 or so, and last year were put a Deere 4640 on it - this 4640 has been dyno'ed at 180 HP (it shows evidence the smoke screw was turned up). I can't say that last year that the mower was put into any super-heavy crops or abused in any way.

The manual calls for "90 EP" gear lube in all the gear boxes on the machine (three on the driveline, two on either side of the mower deck, and then the cutterbar). I've been using Chevron 80W-90 ESI gear lube. As I investigated the specs on 90 EP, it comes out to a GL-5 lube spec. The Chevron 80W-90 ESI (extreme service) lube claims to exceed GL-5 lube specs.

Today I was draining and re-filling the gearboxes. In the two closest to the PTO end of the tongue, I notice the lube comes out looking like metallic flake paint. You can see the itty-bitty flecks of metal suspended in the lube in direct sunlight -- there wasn't a drain of clean lube, and then flakes in the very bottom -- these flakes were evenly suspended in all 2.5 quarts of lube in each box. The second gearbox from the tractor PTO was worse than the first. The flakes are very, very fine -- like, oh, less than 1/10th of a millimeter, if I had to guess.

The cutterbar and other gearboxes on the machine show no such flakes in their drained lube. The two gearboxes in question feel tight, without any abnormal gear lash, they make no unusual noise, the seals don't leak. They don't get any hotter than one would expect for running 150 HP through them in normal operation. Aside from the metallic flakes, the lube isn't discolored, it doesn't smell like burnt lube. No water was evident in the lube when drained.

Question: is there something about 90 EP that is missing from the Chevron 80W-90 ESI lube? The local dealer said that 80W-90 lube was OK for the machine, and supposedly that advice came from Hesston themselves.

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