# ARIENS confusing oil/lube instructions



## Throatpunch (Oct 18, 2018)

I am not very mechanical, so please instruct/criticize my thinking at will.

I've been reading the manuals for my new Classic 24, as I want to take good care of it. The oil/lube maintenance has me a little confused in some areas. I understand the engine oil, the L3 in the gearbox, and the grease into the zerks just fine. The manual images also show grease being put on the side of a gear and on a hex shaft (Fig. 19 below), but there's no direction as to if its just in that spot, or all over. Also, they don't list any particular oil to use for lubricating those spots that have the oil can. What kind of oil should I be using there?


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## Cardo111 (Feb 16, 2015)

A household oil like 3M should work fine or a good spray oil lube on the chain, if you wanted to go crazy a quality motorcycle chain lube would be ideal. The grease would go on top and in between the gear teeth. I attached a helpful link on the topic from Donyboy73 on YouTube he has many helpful vids for OPE maintenance and repair.


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## skutflut (Oct 16, 2015)

Grease is spread very sparingly on the length and all faces of the hex shaft. It should be cleaned of old grease first. This allows the speed selector mechanism to slide freely along the hex shaft to get the ground speed you want during snow clearing operations. Keeps the rust off so things move nicely.

Same applies to the gears, lube between the teeth and it will spread itself around. 

Don't use excessive amounts of grease anywhere as it may fly off fast moving gears and land in places you don't want grease to be, such as the rubber friction wheel or the friction disk. Same goes for oil in bearings, and other places. A little goes a long way.

Donyboy73 videos will prove invaluable to you as you learn the in's and out' of looking after your Outdoor Power Equipment


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## skydivingnerd (Oct 20, 2018)

*Synthetic Water-Resistant Grease*

I just did the same lube and oil and I orderd Amsoil GWR water-resistant synthetic grease. I saw a post that said Ariens recommends a water-resistant grease for obvious reasons and apparently lithium-based greases are not water-resistant. I figured the grease being synthetic would keep it from stiffening up when the temps get around zero.


https://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-product/grease/synthetic-water-resistant-grease/


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