Trouble greasing my clutch bearing

[mrc]

I have a husqvarna 372 xp that I can’t get grease to the clutch bearing. Anyone have that problem before?

 

[armanidog]

This is a good video. Hopefully you have the grease hole on the 372XP.

 

[mrc]

Turns out it doesn’t. I have the 346 xp and it does have the grease hole. The 372 doesn’t but I’ve been trying. No explanation in the manual. Just says grease the bearings. Now that I know I’ll figure it out. Must not be to important
because it obviously never got grease the way I was trying!

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I think most people over grease bearings like that. It takes a tiny amount of grease, and if you are greasing it with the grease gun, you are pushing grease out of the bearing and into/behind the clutch, which makes a mess and reduces clutch grip. I grease my bearings once in a while when I remove and clean the clutch.

 

[mrc]

The 346xp has a hole in the shaft meant for a grease gun. The 372 looks like it has the hole but it doesn’t go thru. That’s why I was confused. I thought all of the husqvarnas were the same. The manual for the 372 gives no other information but grease the bearing. No instructions how.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

Normally you would remove the clutch to clean and wipe some fresh grease on the bearing. They only turn when idling, not when cutting. More idle time means greasing more often. Once or twice a year is usually plenty.

 

[mrc]

I think most people over grease bearings like that. It takes a tiny amount of grease, and if you are greasing it with the grease gun, you are pushing grease out of the bearing and into/behind the clutch, which makes a mess and reduces clutch grip. I grease my bearings once in a while when I remove and clean the clutch.

I’ll probably sound stupid to you but I’ve never removed and cleaned a clutch. I bought the 346xp and 372xp in 2009. The 372 was crushed by a tree four or five years ago and I replaced it. I cut about 10 cords of wood year. How often should I be cleaning the clutch.

 

[mrc]

Normally you would remove the clutch to clean and wipe some fresh grease on the bearing. They only turn when idling, not when cutting. More idle time means greasing more often. Once or twice a year is usually plenty.

Thanks. Didn’t see this before I asked the question.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I’ll probably sound stupid to you but I’ve never removed and cleaned a clutch. I bought the 346xp and 372xp in 2009. The 372 was crushed by a tree four or five years ago and I replaced it. I cut about 10 cords of wood year. How often should I be cleaning the clutch.

You'd be surprised how dirty/grimy they get. I pull inboard clutches a few times a year. Outboard clutches are more of a pain, so maybe once a year. I clean them out and rub a little white lithium grease on the bearing/crank and put it back together. A clean clutch is a strong clutch.

 

[hedge wood]

I don't normally cut wood in the winter so that's the time of the year my saws get what I call a deep cleaning and that's when the clutch housing comes off and ever thing is cleaned and that bearing gets greased then. In forty plus years of sawing I haven't ever had that bearing fail. I do use a air compressor and blow my saws off after each use. I even use a air tank in the timber and blow off the caps before I fuel and oil up.

 

[ericm979]

Blowing with the compressor doesn't get behind the clutch or inside the clutch drum. You need to take the clutch off to clean them. Once a year is probably good for us homeowners.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I always clean my cap areas before opening them.

 

[Ashful]

This got me curious enough, as I mostly own Stihl saws, and don't recall ever seeing anything about greasing a clutch bearing in those manuals. Sure enough, pulled up the manual for my 064, and... nothing.

 

[Vg3200p]

Same ashful. I run an ms250 and never heard of this. I have cleaned saw clutches before but never greased a clutch bearing

 

[mrc]

My husqvarna manual says it should be greased once a week. The 346xp I grease every time I pull the cover off. I tried the same method with the 372xp but obviously that wasn’t working. I probably use the 346xp ninety percent of the time.

 

[Ashful]

I wonder what fraction of Husqvarna owners actually grease this once per week... or ever! Seems a likely failure point, if the procedure is not intuitive, easy, and obvious.

On the flip side, Stihl went to greaseless sealed bearings on their sprocket nose bars (the classic Rollomatic), which was enough to get me to start buying a different brand. I want a sprocket nose I can grease, to eject the chips and stringy wood fibers that inevitably work their way into the seal. Went to Total Tsumura and Carlton bars on each new purchase, which still have greasable nose sprockets.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I know stihl has geeaseless tios, but I don't see how they can be sealed. I have put many many years on my stihl bars. I have also never greased a bar. The oil lubes the bearing. The bearing is doing thousands of rpm and any ceud gets flung out under high g forces. I don't even know how many hours or cords are on my 20" stihl bar, it's a lot. I have had it for 15 years and used it commercially and for heavy personal use.

I remember my dad greasing the tips of his bars (poulan) every time he refueled and he always burned up a saw before emptying the grease pusher thingy. He asked me why I didn't grease mine and I told him it didn't need it.

 

[Sean McGillicuddy]

I didn't think I would be touching my Husky 350 ... I will have to now ..

 

[Ashful]

The oil lubes the bearing. The bearing is doing thousands of rpm and any ceud gets flung out under high g forces.

There's no way oil from the chain is getting to that sprocket nose while running, in fact it is being flung directly opposite that direction, away from the sprocket nose bearing. But perhaps some makes its way down there while the chain is at rest, or perhaps it's just made of materials that require less lube.

I know they're made for pro use, and if it was an issue they'd not have ditched the grease hole, but I still prefer having a grease hole and a grease gun.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I didn't think I would be touching my Husky 350 ... I will have to now ..

They run real good ported. Mine out-cuts my stock 372xp.
It's a little screamer. I was running my 372 for the last several weeks and then ran my 350 yesterday. I was not prepared for it. There's a reason I run ported saws. 😁