Multico A1 - lubrication / maintenance

[madmango]

Hi folks!

I recently picked up a Multico A1 which has these grease fittings.



When I took one of the wheels off, the grease was completely dried out, but there is no play, so I don't think any metal has worn out.

Will any type of grease gun work with these fittings? I saw that there are some with locking jaws, but not sure if those are only for ball type fittings.

For grease itself, I was thinking about something like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007WR38TY
Or this, which I think is the same thing, but in a cartridge: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002E2LR72

It says it's good for bearings, would that work?

The motor is an old Brook unit, and it has two grease fittings as well:



Should I pump some in there as well, or does the motor need a different type of grease? I emailed Brook, but it seems like it's a big holding company, I'm not sure if they will have advice for older units.
I think with motors, less is safer than too much when it comes to grease, and in a different thread on the forum I saw some advice to just open it up and grease by hand if needed.
I might give that a go if it's the safer option.

 

[Amplidyne]

If it's an old motor, it might not hurt to pull it apart and put new grease in the bearings. There is IIRC a special grease made for motor bearings, but again IIRC, we just used to use a high melting point grease when I worked in industry. Be very sparing with the grease gun though.

 

[madmango]

Thanks, I looked at the data sheets for both greases, looks like the one in a tub is a bit more heavy duty, both in terms of longevity and temperature range. It works up to 150 degrees C. I think if those parts reach 150 C, I've got bigger problems

 

[madmango]

Okay, so I didn't get a reply from Brook, but an independent repair shop helped out.
I got this PDF which, if I read correctly, says that my model needs grease every 15,000 hours.

Looks like I'll only need to do it once, so I'll just take the motor apart, rather than risk overfilling it.

The PDF suggests a discontinued grease called Shell Alvania RA, the closest one I found is Shell Gadus S5 V100 2.

I'm going to use the same thing for belt pulleys, the only problem I've got now is that most grease fittings are 1/4 inch or 6mm, and this Multico has 3/16 inch ones. Not sure if a standard grease gun will fit, so I got in touch with the people that make grease guns since I've never used one, I'd rather just buy the correct one first time.

 

[Amplidyne]

Now this I'm really not certain about. I do know grease nipples come in many thread sizes, but I've only seen two types of head. The normal type, like on your motor, and the "button head" type that uses a grease fitting that pushes on from the side.
As I've said, lubricate motor bearings sparingly, a quarter of a pump once the gun is primed. Same with repacking the bearings, leave some space. I reckon it's more important to have some clean grease in there than what type, although obviously if you can get the right type it's the one to use. We just used to use grease from the cartridges supplied by the firm. A high melting point "general purpose" grease.
Motors rarely gave bearing problems, and remember that they were often big motors, running continuously in often adverse conditions.
When you're greasing, have a piece of clean rag to hand, and wipe the nipple off before and after. You don't want to put dirt in there with the grease.

 

[Fergie 307]

The rubber covers for car brake bleed nipples can be used to cover them.
Personally I would change them for ball type so you can use a lock on gun with a flexible hose. Makes life a lot easier.
And do check what is supposed to go into each one. Some machines will have nipples like this for oil, rather than grease in some locations. No idea if this might be the case on yours, but someone will know.
Put grease in one that is supposed to be for oil and you might have some issues down the line.

 

[Deadeye]

Okay, so I didn't get a reply from Brook, but an independent repair shop helped out.
I got this PDF which, if I read correctly, says that my model needs grease every 15,000 hours.

Looks like I'll only need to do it once, so I'll just take the motor apart, rather than risk overfilling it.

The PDF suggests a discontinued grease called Shell Alvania RA, the closest one I found is Shell Gadus S5 V100 2.

I'm going to use the same thing for belt pulleys, the only problem I've got now is that most grease fittings are 1/4 inch or 6mm, and this Multico has 3/16 inch ones. Not sure if a standard grease gun will fit, so I got in touch with the people that make grease guns since I've never used one, I'd rather just buy the correct one first time.

I've rebuilt a couple of Multico machines with old grease nipples. You can get imperial "guns" - they're just a push to squirt and a bit of a drag to fill; search ebay for "brass grease gun". Or drill out the thread and re-tap for metric

 

[Amplidyne]

No need to re tap I reckon? Nipples are available with just about any thread like here.

https://www.hle.co.uk/shop/grease-n...c-straight/straight-hydraulic-grease-nipples/

Whether they do small quantities or not I don't know, but most companies are helpful if you approach them.

 

[madmango]

The rubber covers for car brake bleed nipples can be used to cover them.
Personally I would change them for ball type so you can use a lock on gun with a flexible hose. Makes life a lot easier.
And do check what is supposed to go into each one. Some machines will have nipples like this for oil, rather than grease in some locations. No idea if this might be the case on yours, but someone will know.
Put grease in one that is supposed to be for oil and you might have some issues down the line.

I hadn't considered that, I'm pretty sure these two I circled in green are for grease, I can move them around and I can see evidence of previous, now dry grease in there I noticed that these holes are lined with a softer metal, so that if anything wears out, it's not the shafts, and just the lining that can be replaced, pretty clever.

The one I'm not sure about is the one I circled yellow, I can't see inside that one. It's for the shaft that drives the blade, but I'm 90% sure it would be grease as well.

A local men's shed offered to help me out with figuring out the thread on the grease fittings, they've gone through something similar recently.

I'll just order standard ball type fittings with the correct thread and a standard grease gun, should make it easier in the future.

Thanks everyone for helping me figure it out!

 

[madmango]

I've replaced the fittings and greased everything, the saw is much quieter now!
If anyone stumbles across this thread wanting to replace the fittings, on my machine they are 1/4 X28 UNF, I got a pack of 10 for a fiver on eBay.

I'm still not sure where the grease goes on the pulley circled in yellow, I've added a fair amount, but I didn't see it come out of anywhere so I stopped as to not overdo it.

I took off the big nut in front of the pulley, hoping that it would let me slide out the shaft to which the blade is mounted, and I could see where the grease port goes, but it wasn't obvious whether it was meant to come apart that way, so I've just put it back together.

One thing I'm not too comfortable with is the amount of slack in the belts, I don't think there's supposed to be as much as in this video?
I've replaced them with the same length that was installed.

I thought the old ones have stretched and that's why they were a bit sloppy, but I think they're just a bit too long.

 

[madmango]

While trying to follow where the grease went from that one fitting, I took apart so much of the saw that it just made sense to keep going and paint it.

I'm slowly putting it back together, I aligned the table to the blade properly now, it's better than it was when I got it, the wiring on the NVR switch was loose and there have been some burn marks, so definitely a worthwhile endeavour. I'm also confident that everything will be greased properly now





The motor is the last bit that I wanted to check out, I took it apart to see the condition of the grease and how much there is, instead of blindly pumping and risking overfilling it. It was pretty gunked up in places, but there was still enough of good grease in there to keep everything running smoothly.

I did notice that the rotor looks quite rusty though, is this a cause for concern?



I never noticed any noise from it, the only reason I took it apart was to check the grease.
You might recognise a repeating pattern of me not knowing where something goes and how much to add and taking stuff apart in the absence of a manual. I might have a problem but here we are

Is that normal for an old motor, or do I need to clean that off?

 

[madmango]

I got some advice from a friend who's an industrial electrician type of person, and he said it's nothing to worry about. The inside walls looked good too, just the rotor had some surface rust.



The motor is back in one piece, greased, cleaned and ready to be installed