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How much grease

Hi all,

I purchased a stihl HLA85 long reach hedgetrimmer and now need to grease it after doing about 20 hours with it. This does not have ant nipple on it and looks like i just take the cover off and smear it on, could anyone tellme how much though, is it a light smearing or pack as much in as possible or somewhere in between (my favourite option). 

I should have looked at it as soon as I bought it to compare but was eager to try it out,Also I use high temperature lithium grease in my concrete breaker I presume this is compatible after reading in older threads.

I have 2 fr40 curved shaft strimmers with no signs of where I can grease these if required, any help on all of these queries is greatly appreciated,

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Replies

  • is there a torx headed bolt that you remove?  The stihl grease tube ('toothpaste') screws into this opening and 'you fill the void'.  

    • As Tim says. I don't use the stihl toothpaste tubes though, think they're a bit of a rip off. I hold the grease gun on as best I can and fill the void.

      I've been using high temp lithium grease, works fine  

      • I've been using high tem lithium grease and your right it works fine.  Just a 3rd of the cost of Stihls own!

      • I use a grease gun also, you can get cone shaped nozzles and it fits inside the stihl torq screw housing

  • PRO

    It’s easy to source matching grease from a motor factor at a much reduced cost.

    Only issue is you need to apply pressure to plastic nozzle rather than screw in.

    • There is no torx screw, only the four that keep the cover on, it is easy to take off for access  but how much grease should I put in. This is the battery long reach .Stihl seem to be making it harder to service your own tools. 

      It is simple to grease I just dont know if I overfill will it cause damage.

      The fs 40 strimmers dont seem to have any access to grease movable parts.

  • PRO

    I’ve been vocal before on LJN re: Stihl’s battery kit not yet being totally commercial maintenance proof.

    For most residential gardens, and/or light commercial use it can generally pass muster unless you’re going into a totally neglected garden.

    If you hunt down previous posts, we were fortunate to be lent the complete Stihl range inc back packs etc for two weeks to trial last year

    We have found you can not send out a team with only battery gear and expect it to handle everything they could encounter and deal with if they had petrol gear.

    Part battery, part build - the equipment had been engineered downwards to suit a lesser environment that can be supported by current battery technology. 

    So, we still take petrol gear as back up.

    Will this change ? Yes, I believe so as battery tec improves and pushes out more power to drive heavier duty gear.

    Would we go totally battery now ? No. In my mind this is ‘Gen 1’ gear and reasonable to expect to see multiple generations with better / heavier duty machines over next few years.

     

     

    • Gary RK,

      I totally agree with you and have the petrol stuff as well but as I get older I am trying to cut down on the heavy clear ups, etc, The less  weight,fumes, noise etc, is so much better as long as I am cutting into this years growth, obviously reliability is unproven and a gamble at this stage, however all my power tools (recip saw, sds drills , circular saws etc have been transformed over the last 5 or so years with the advance in the lithium ion batteries and hopefully this will continue.

      Any info on the grease amount still needed.

      thanks

      • PRO

        It’s hard to give a quantity, but with base plate off we just make sure there’s a good cover of grease on the crank & gears & slides with enough around it so that as it warms up it becomes self attaching / lubing.

        For the base plates or helical gear boxes with the Torx screw, we just pump in gently until we see it filling up. 

        Out on site we just use Putoline tubes of grease they carry in the van, back at base we use pump sleeves of grease from screwfix or somewhere similar ( ie we don’t use a grease gun as you’ve no real pressure to overcome )

  • PRO

    When I do it I remove the bottom cover and press the grease into all the mechanism and the drive cog leaving just a wee edge with no grease in it at all for fling and expansion.

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