Mikefromcny
Well-known member
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- Nov 13, 2011
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- 352
it looks like my 743 has a u joint off the engine as a drive coupling, is there any way to get at it to grease it?
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Its not fun.
Get an extra long hose for your grease gun and a helper with a spanner on the main pulley nut on the engine. Slowly get your helper to rotate the engine while you have your arm behind the pump with the grease gun while feeling around for the grease nipples.
Its not at all fun, but can be done.
Get an extra long hose for your grease gun and a helper with a spanner on the main pulley nut on the engine. Slowly get your helper to rotate the engine while you have your arm behind the pump with the grease gun while feeling around for the grease nipples.
Its not at all fun, but can be done.
I'd like to grease mine too but I'm not sure what to look for. Anybody have a pic of what I'm looking for?
there should be 3 grease fittings to grease , a remote starter switch makes the job easy and you can do it by yourself , you do need a long hose on your grease gun or two hoses and coupler to put the two together -------oh ! and small hands are helpful
JD4440
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- Jun 12, 2009
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- 80
My luck I'd do all that and the fitting wouldn't take grease :-(
So I opened it up and can reach back and barely feel the grease fitting. I tried to attach the hose but I just dont have the push necessary to attach the hose firmly because my arm is all bent in a funny way. Any ideas?
Poke a digital camera back there so you can see what you are dealing with, it's not fun to grease it but everybody does it. While you have your hand back there have someone you trust gently rock the engine crank back and forth with a socket and handle so you can feel if there is any slack in the joint.
mrfixitpaul
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- Mar 28, 2009
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- 365
And after you have the engine in the position that makes greasing the least painful, mark the crank pulley and engine with a paint marker so next time you just line up the marks.....much easier for when you are working alone.
firefrost gold
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- Sep 11, 2012
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can you get to the joint from the back or do you go in from under cab?
Under the cab. There is no room from the engine side anyway, you have a big blower fan/flywheel there.
firefrost gold
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- Sep 11, 2012
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thanks I have to find a long grease hose any ideas
I thought you could get extension hoses?
mahans7
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- Aug 22, 2012
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Its amazing how many new things I'm finding to do on my new to me 743. I'm sure I'll need to lube mine also since it appears they didn't do a lot of regular maintenance on it. How long a grease gun hose is needed to lube the u joint?
I think another member has used a double hose, so it was a total of about 1.5'? You really just need it long enough so you can reach the crease nipples and not keep pulling the hose off as you twist the grease gun to pump it full of grease. It's not easy to do, but can be done.
mahans7
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- Aug 22, 2012
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Thanks again Tazza. Ed
My 743 went 20 yrs with the original u joint, I greased it regularly ,probably too much but it was never a problem. However the grease did tend to mix with dirt and clog the oil cooler and radiator quite a lot. That was the major design flaw with that cooling setup. The 743 is still a good buy with lots of people doing total rebuilds to keep them going.
mahans7
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- Aug 22, 2012
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Man you guys absolutely invigorate me. I would change brake pads on my cars with the grease fittings sitting right in front of me and not grease the joint. But now that I see how to unclog and replace the zerk fittings, I'm going to go over my cars and grease them all. I will also be crawling under the 743 to grease that too and inspecting the oil cooler/radiator. My wife has been complaining that I'm spending too much time on here, but then I say look at all the work I've been able to do with the 743 and to our cars because of you guys on this site. Its working so far. Thanks again.
Am new to forum but info here is great. Greasing this joint is crtical!! I bought a used 743 and hadn't found this forum and didn't knoww about greasing. Needless to say the joint let loose and bent the front input shaft on the hydro pump. Now in process of fixing this. My rcommendation is to pull the motor, which only takes about 2 hours and inspect joint. I have read that some guys have broke the housing on the pump when this lets go.
