# How to tell grease or oil in auger gear box? Is one better?



## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

How do you tell if the auger gear box takes grease or oil? 

Do you look in the manual? 

Since it never gets changed unless the gear box is shot, can I safely assume if it has grease, it takes grease; and if it has oil, it takes oil? 

How often should we change the oil? 

OK to use synthetic oil, 85w? 70-90w? 

Read the manual and use what it recommends? 

Should the grease ever be changed? If it does, of course a summer job, take the gear case apart, wipe out and clean with kerosene or old turned orange gasoline that we removed from someone else's blower! Of course not ours. Then refill with synthetic grease? Should I use synthetic chassis grease that comes in a tube for a grease gun or synthetic grease that comes in a tub, such as a 1 lb. can?

Is one better than the other?

It would seem if you substitute oil for grease it may leak out?

Is it dangerous to substitute? Different loads and then failure?


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## Mike C. (Jan 28, 2016)

JLawrence08648 said:


> How do you tell if the auger gear box takes grease or oil?
> 
> Do you look in the manual?
> 
> Read the manual and use what it recommends?


This is always the best thing to do first-read the manual.

If you find grease in a gearbox that's supposed to have oil in it according the manufacturer,it's usually because the seals started to leak and putting "00" grease(or ANYTHING they had on hand) in the box is a quicker,cheaper fix.It's not necessarily the best because if that gearbox has ball or roller bearings,grease is not going to lubricate them well at low temps.

A lot of people just assume that blower gearboxes use oil, when they don't-gears=gear oil.A lot Toros use grease,specifically Lubriplate Mag-1.This is very expensive stuff and many choose not to buy it and dump oil in .Again,OK if your seals are in excellent shape.A good NLGI 1 synthetic EP grease is as good as the Mag-1,though.

I use Valvoline full-synthetic 75w-90 in my Allis which specifies gear oil.According the them,it IS yellow metal safe.

I use a Synthetic NLGI-1 grease made by Schaeffer in my Toro 521.

I may have to finish out the winter with "00" grease or the synthetic in the Allis,as I noticed the other day one seal is leaking pretty bad.No ball or roller bearings to worry about in that machine.

Do not use just any old NLGI-2 chassis grease that you have hanging around-it won't do the job at low temperatures.


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## mrfixit (Dec 3, 2016)

The manual is your friend, not fire starter.


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## Spectrum (Jan 6, 2013)

Comments below in *bold*.
Pete



JLawrence08648 said:


> How do you tell if the auger gear box takes grease or oil? *Mainly the manual. The location of plugs may be a clue but not definitive. The lack of any fill or vent plugs makes grease pack a pretty sure bet.*
> 
> Do you look in the manual? *That's best.*
> 
> ...


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## GoBlowSnow (Sep 4, 2015)

If there is even a manual available.


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## TimToolMan (Feb 9, 2017)

If it can be filled with oil its better. A buddy drills and taps trans axel housings so they can be filled with oil.


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