Cleaned up and fixed up an old 1997 JD 1032D blower and I was wondering if any of you folks figured a way to lube the inside of the diff. Looks like the one in the picture and from what I could find from wikipedia I bet that the inside is just like the spur gear diff as the pin placements on the side look eerily similar.

I did pull the short axle sleeve out and squirt grease in the splined area then pushed the axle back on to force grease up in there a few times but seeing as it's somewhere around $389 for a new one I'd like to make sure it's good for another decade or three.

I can easily drill a hole in the side and tap it for a grease zerk but I'm curious if anyone else has done anything similar to lube the internals.


Going to post this in the JD section as well fyi.

Thanks in advance!

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Upon further inspection I see that a chain and sprocket wipes over the entire surface.. Thankfully there's this..

Flush or Cup Grease Fittings

Otherwise I was going to do what chainsaw bars use at the tip (if you don't buy the good stihl ematic ones that is, iirc) and just have a hole in the case to put some grease in there.

Perhaps I'm going overkill, or perhaps I'm bored as there's no snow here hardly.. probably a little of both but I don't want to have to purchase another diff ever and renters are going to be using this thing mostly so I don't want to have to fix it and most renters don't give a hoot about maintenance.

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i would not over grease it, to much is as bad as not enough, if it's working ? IMM leave it alone,

I've never tried to lube it. Not knowing what's in there, I'd be a bit leery of adding a grease that could be incompatible with the factory lube. Then you've just created a bigger problem. Maybe you could check with Ariens, to see if you could find out what suggested, or what they used?

nota,

Although I don't personally have a JD 1032, it looks suspiciously like the Ariens axle &diff setup. I believe the diff is getting lube when the short axle gets greased. When I service that style unit, I have the bottom cover off and up on its nose. I watch the diff gears while greasing, as I use a battery powered gun. I put enough in until I see lube squeeze out at the diff inner splines. That tells me its getting to the diff gears at least. I don't want so much in there that it interferes with the compression spring. Hard to know exactly how much is enough. The ones I have taken apart have a white lube look to the grease. I use marine lube. Never had a compatibility issue with different lubes, as I only see hardened gears and a spring. Who's to say if it will last another 35-40 years..... But my grand kids can worry about it then.

GLuck, Jay

I did learn of this technique and went ahead and drilled a hole, inserting a grease zerk. It took quite a bit of lube. I haven't had any real snow to try it out on yet but I don't see where it's going to hurt. When I did open it up originally, it was very dusty with rust. I coated the inside of the axles shaft with anti-seize as well. Just in case.
I was thinking of drilling a very small hole on the opposite side of the differential to let excess grease squeeze out but then was told that being the axles aren't sealed that tight...it'll do the same thing. Good luck.

That was my understanding too.

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Seeing as the grease is going in through the axle and there's no vent or way for the grease to escape from the spur gear area then you're not really greasing much of anything in there as it becomes sort of pressurized as the air can't really escape anywhere.

Perhaps if one were to drill a tiny hole up between the spur gear shafts then grease would migrate up there easily.

When I was greasing the short axle I ended up with most of it going out the diff lock area at the tire.

A video link to the gears moving and how the diff works. There's a washer between the two axle ends.

Fyi when I cleaned it out the grease smelled like 80w90 gear oil so not sure what was in there. Most all grease that I can even think of is compatible with all other greases so what one uses shouldn't be an issue. I'll probably stuff mine with amsoil marine grease that's a pretty blue color...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/mksE19o4CvaBdBso9

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Turned out great and the receipt is in the background as a reference to what I used and from where. The push in 1/4" fitting fit great and I ended up getting some 1 3/16" long tubular rivets to hole it together. If anyone needs some of those rivets then let me know as I got a pack of 100 and only used 9 as one was a test.

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Awesome! Thanks for sharing the results, it looks great.