The International Cessna 170 Association

How much grease do you folks pump into the zert on the tailwheel axel after greasing the bearings? The grease in the axel is always clean as when put in, but am wondering if one should completely fill the void in the wheel center.

I don't put any in. Every annual I disassemble the pivot and remove the wheel bearings. I clean and inspect all, then grease and reassemble. That's it. In my opinion, there's no reason to pump more grease into it unless you're operating in a very wet or dirty environment.

There are 2 grease zerks on the 3200. The axle zerk and the king pin zerk.

The kin pin is better serviced by disassembly, cleaning and reassembly with the bearings greases and limited lub on the friction plates. pumpmg grease into this zerk tends to load grease in between the friction plates which is not what you want. Most I might do is a 1/4 squirt in this zerk every year or two.

The axel zerk is an different animal. Again the best way to service the bearings is to remove, clean and grease them. It makes little difference if there is air isn the zerk passage. In between cleanings I might squirt enough grease into this zerk until I see evidence of grease just being pushed out around the bearings. I wipe off excess grease.

Wow, I am very surprised by the answers received . After each time I put the old girl away I pump grease into each fitting until clean grease comes out . Never had any issues . Always thought this was the "done " thing to do . We had 14 Cessna 180,s in the Australian army aviation squadron and this is what we did there also. (Many years ago). Especially operating out of really dusty or beach conditions .

Note.. The "old girl is the aircraft not the wife .

DaveF wrote:I don't put any in. Every annual I disassemble the pivot and remove the wheel bearings. I clean and inspect all, then grease and reassemble. That's it. In my opinion, there's no reason to pump more grease into it unless you're operating in a very wet or dirty environment.

+1

ghostflyer wrote:Wow, I am very surprised by the answers received . After each time I put the old girl away I pump grease into each fitting until clean grease comes out . Never had any issues . Always thought this was the "done " thing to do . We had 14 Cessna 180,s in the Australian army aviation squadron and this is what we did there also. (Many years ago). Especially operating out of really dusty or beach conditions .

Note.. The "old girl is the aircraft not the wife .

Same here. I worked at a glider port when I was in college and we did this on the 7 Supercub towplanes. No problems. I've use the same procedure on my 170, no issues.

And there you have it. Those that use little to no grease between cleaning and packing and those that pump grease every flight. Your definitive answer would be found somewhere between them.

"MUCHAS GRACIAS"

Both methods have merit. When I land on sandy beaches the tailwheel gets cleaned off and greased when I get home. When I fly on concrete runways it gets cleaned and greased at annual. It depends on how it is used.

I used to do the zirk method but since having issues with my tailwheel i'm not doing that again. i'll just inspect and re-pack when necessary.

If the tail wheel bearings are properly greased and reinstalled, does pumping grease into the zert on the axel, until it comes out either or both sides of the wheel, provide any lubercation to the bearings themselves? Seems any grease in the tail wheel void area(the area between the two bearings in the wheel itself) would not migrate out to the bearings and is just filling, unnecessarily, the void area. Hope I am asking this properly to define my question.
Thanks again!

Grease in the axle would not lubricate the bearings. However if you wish to push fresh grease into the bearings using the zerk, the void would have to fill before it happened.

If your asking whether you have to fill the void to properly grease the bearings with the grease you packed in the bearings, I'd say no. However I always through a little extra grease in the void.

To much grease is as bad as not enough!

The first time I disassembled my tailwheel I found everything in the pivot jammed up with old hardened grease. Who knows what incompatible greases they'd pumped in there over the years? Since then I've employed the minimal-grease method of maintenance, not that I've noticed any improvement in operation, though!

Thanks.