Best lube for bucket/basket axle

cory

cory

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I have a 5 year old Terex bucket truck, the axle that attaches the basket to upper boom has no grease fittings, you are supposed to spray lube it. Early on it started ratcheting while leveling during boom movement instead of moving smoothly as it levels. I've tried virtually every lube. A few months ago I tried wd 40 and was amazed that it made the ratcheting go away. After a month or so the ratcheting resumed and for whatever reason reapplying wd40 is not resolving it now. Anyone have any ideas or spray lube recs of something that penetrates well and offers great lubrication? It needs to run through a nozzle/straw to reach through the bad access. Thanks.

Rich, I think you run a Terex, any experience with this issue?
 
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Would an air sprayer work? You can adjust the liquid flow and air pressure. Use what ever liquid lube you want.
 
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  • #5
MasterBlaster said:
VERY irritating!!! :X
Click to expand...

Ha! When it stopped ratcheting for a few weeks with the WD, my heart soared like an eagle!!

Brian, that is good stuff, I used it often on my ALC, but I've tried it to no avail on this issue.
 
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  • #6
Raj said:
Would an air sprayer work? You can adjust the liquid flow and air pressure. Use what ever liquid lube you want.
Click to expand...

Not a bad idea. Can you tell me a bit about those, I've never seen one.
 
It's just a tube from the container to the tip, the air pressure sucks it up and sprays out the adjustable nozzle, from a fine mist to a big mess.
 
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  • #10
Not that I know of. A terex mechanic looked at it, didn't see anything amiss, said its dumb there are no zerks on it
 
I’ll try to see what we use tomorrow Cory. We’ve been useing what ever our mech buys though. That has always irritated me about the Terex booms. Don’t even mention my altec elevator. All kinds of nylon or Teflon bushings that you don’t grease. Pisses me off every week when I grease it.
 
Can you take it apart, clean it, and add some to it? Would be a pain for sure, but problem solved and would make it wear much less as time goes on....
 
I don't know bucket maintenance specifically. But the ratcheting stopping for a bit with WD40 seems like it would be due to the short term lubrication qualities of WD40. That it doesn't go away now seems like it might relate to too much build up of gunk/corosion or whatever in a dry sticking condition.

Boesheild T9 is a product made by Boeing to go in and leave a dry residue of wax behind as a lubricant. It has a spray tube application. I would use it on a hot day, expect it to take time and multiple applications to work down in there and displace any dry gunk build up. Then stay ahead of the curve in reapplications. https://boeshield.com/
 
WD40 frees the old grease deposits and allows them to move again and farther. But after, it doesn't work anymore because the deposits are gone (the useful part at least) and the wd40 isn't a lubricant by itself.

Is the ratcheting coming from en axle-bushings problem or from the knuckle's sides too much tightened (lack of sideway play) ?

How about drilling the knuckle and screwing in a grease nipple or oil valve ? It seems to me that either nylon or teflon handle very well the oil/grease. Not sure if the bushings are in PEHD (it depends of the grade/variety), as the oil can penetrate some of those plastics and modify the characteristics.
 
Just did an arial lift workshop and the instructor (while looking at a Terex bucket truck) suggested a Dri Slide type lube for what it's worth.) Volatile carrier takes graphite in and evaporates leaving only graphite.
 
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  • #18
Thanks for the responses.

Kyle- that is a good idea but way over my pay grade. It would probably work nicely as there was no ratcheting when the machine was new. Ill ask the mechanic about it when I get the annual inspection.

Macauleytree- does lube a boom penetrate well? Sounds like it lubes great if it gets where its needed.

Marc- The problem is in the basket axle/bushings. A grease fitting would be nice to install if feasible. So you are saying the WD loosened up old lube in there and made it work again but then when the ratcheting started again 2-3 weeks later and WD was reapplied, there was no more old lube in there and the WD alone won't lube?

Merle, does Boeshield penetrate well?

Thanks, fellas. Damn i'd love to get this machine running great again.
 
Boeshield is good at penetrating but not great. (Dri Slide is great.)

If you think of a test I could do on my Bandit 90XP ,and see the results, I'll go out and try it. All the stuff I commonly use it for is exposed. Chute adjuster chain, latch pins, hinges.

I guess I could put it on the outside of the knife hood pin only, let it sit for a few minutes and see how far it traveled in by pulling the pin.
 
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  • #20
Well maybe I should try some Dri Slide. Need something that can penetrate in there and then lube.
 
Marc is dead on about the wd-40. And I'd try some dry lube, if you've been through every flavour of spraying wet lube with no success.
 
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  • #22
Good point, but do dry lubes penetrate? I have almost no experience with dry lube.
 
I haven't used them much. But I'd try a dry graphite spray if nothing else seemed to be working I think.
 
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