Community Forums

Tall Tex · 04-04-2016, 07:11 AM

When driving our Anthem from NIRVC to Texas I noticed right away the steering was not right. I struggled to keep it straight in the lane. The steering wheel did not help go back to center. Eventually I learned to deal with it😁. I called Spartan about my tag axle oil leak and I mentioned to Charlie that my steering was not right. We talked about alignment shops in Texas etc. Then he mentioned that he heard someone had jacked up the front end and greased the king pins and that it helped. So that is what I did last week. Yesterday we left for a rally and right away I could tell the difference. Now it steers like a luxury coach should. Each fitting on the king pins took about 10 pumps of the grease gun to feel full. That is a lot of grease! While I was at it I greased all the linkage too. Every joint took a lot of grease.

One would think that somewhere during the manufacturing and delivery process the chassis would get greased.

Anyone else notice a lack of chassis grease?

MRUSA14 · 04-04-2016, 07:24 AM

I have to wonder if your chassis somehow was missed when the grease job was to be done. I would carefully check every grease fitting, there may be others needing grease. There should be a lube chart in your coach docs.

waterboy10 · 04-04-2016, 07:59 AM

On my 13 Aspire I had to do a lot of greasing myself. It took many pumps and now I check the new coach about every 5-6,000 miles. Dont forget the drive shaft as well as the spring brake fittings. There are more fittings under there than you can imagine bring a flash lite to find them all.

brobox · 04-04-2016, 08:16 AM

Good post! and yes on the lack of grease! I had my first lube and oil change done at Speedco this fall. When I was changing the shocks last week, half the front end zerk fittings were dry! I guess I am back to doing my own grease jobs again. They come from the factory dry and Speedco misses half of them as well. No wonder we have steering problems and parts wearing out prematurely.

John is right about U joints every 5,000 miles. I didn't know that on my last MH, I was doing them at every oil change. Due to my error I lost the U joints in the Upper Peninsula of MI. Very expensive to get delivered overnight. I now carry a very small hand grease gun, Walmart or Harbor Freight, in a plastic bag just for the U joints while traveling.

Gasman 2 · 04-04-2016, 09:51 AM

I did a complete lub job on ours as soon as we got home at 2300 miles from the dealer on our 16 Anthem.
Found on the 2013 Aspire we had they had missed a few fitting.

It's interesting that Charlie mentioned jacking the front end up and greasing the king pins because when we were at Spartan training last summer the trainer said to leave the front end on the ground when greasing the king pins. Two camps of thought on this I guess.

Larry thanks for the post and heads up, good info.

Richard

Hayman · 04-04-2016, 10:03 AM

This is an area that it appears few if any dealers consider part of the delivery process as our 16 Anthem needed greasing when I was underneath poking around. Every grease zert had what I consider to be only the bare minumim build amount. Another thought is Entegra might consider a greasing program when each coach is over the pit.
One word of caution however for Aspire/Anthem owners is be conservative on the amount of grease ( 1 pump usually ) you put in the brake cam rods as you do not want grease being slung into your wheels/shoes.

Hayman · 04-04-2016, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gasman 2

I did a complete lub job on ours as soon as we got home at 2300 miles from the dealer on our 16 Anthem.
Found on the 2013 Aspire we had they had missed a few fitting.

It's interesting that Charlie mentioned jacking the front end up and greasing the king pins because when we were at Spartan training last summer the trainer said to leave the front end on the ground when greasing the king pins. Two camps of thought on this I guess.

Larry thanks for the post and heads up, good info.

Richard

Normally the rule of thumb is to leave on the ground BUT an old timer ( kinda like me now ) taught me if the King Pins were dry it made it easier to get the grease through.

Gasman 2 · 04-04-2016, 10:24 AM

Oh, Larry did you get the grease fitting in the u joint on the steering shaft above the steering gear?
This one is hard to get to.

Richard

twinboat · 04-04-2016, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hayman

Normally the rule of thumb is to leave on the ground BUT an old timer ( kinda like me now ) taught me if the King Pins were dry it made it easier to get the grease through.

It is true that up on jacks makes it easier to grease the bushings.

Then you need to grease the thrust bearing, that supports the weight of the vehcile.

Because the thrust bearing is between the axle and lower spindle fork, the weight needs to be on the bearing.

The grease travels up thru the lower bushing then into the bearing. The grease need to come out, above the thrust bearing.

It is also recomended that you grease until comes out clean. That way you are flushing out the contaminated grease and water.

This goes for S Cam bushings too. They are sealed against grease going out the end with the brakes.

All of this information is published and readable on line.

If you can navigate this fourm, you should be able to surf the net and find out exactly, how to lubricate your vehicle.

Gasman 2 · 04-04-2016, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hayman

Normally the rule of thumb is to leave on the ground BUT an old timer ( kinda like me now ) taught me if the King Pins were dry it made it easier to get the grease through.

Yeh, I'm from that old school to, like to take the weigh off the the king pins to grease. Maybe I'll jack up one time and not the next. 😄

HzrdUs · 04-04-2016, 12:23 PM

I had practically no grease in all my zerks too. Everyone took over 10 pumps. It can't hurt to take the weight off the front when greasing the kingpins, it helps to evenly distribute the grease. Also make sure you don't over lube anything with the rubber boots. I lube them until they start to swell.

brobox · 04-04-2016, 12:45 PM

$70. to replace one boot, don't ask me how I know.

And that was several years ago. Probably over $100. today.

Anthem46 · 04-04-2016, 01:03 PM

Thanks Larry I will add that to Bonnie's list of things to grease!! Hope to see ya'll again soon.

Flanz · 04-04-2016, 01:09 PM

Good info here.

So, then what's the preference for grease used? Talking grease manufac. I realize that Spartan calls out an NLGI #2 or equivalent. Just curious as to what grease manufacturer folks are using.

-paul