FS 460 Brushcutter no grease point??

[Haironyourchest]

Not a whole lot of info out there, but seems to be that the gearboxes on the Sthil pro brush cutters are "greased for life" or some such malarkey. Looking to invest in one for the new year, as my Husq 543RS is giving me tingle-fingers.

 

Anyone running FS 460's and the like? Whaddya think? Is there a way to grease the head? (without pulling the bearings). Is it necessary? Cheers guys...

[cornish wood burner]

Probably only necessary if you want it to last more than a couple of months. My old Stihl has a plug that can be removed to grease the gearbox. I would be very disappointed if the newer ones didn't have this.

[seandonaghy]

We use them in my work (forestry commission ) ours are 3 years old now and work perfectly. As far as I'm aware you can't grease the head as it's sealed bearings.

[Richard 1234]

I'm looking a new one too but I'm thinking 300 series as I believe these have grease points and are 2 mix not 4 mix which I don't want. But the have the anti vibe that I want.

[Magic rat]

Nope mine dosent have a plug, i wondered about greasing.

Did some Google'ing at the time and Stihl says its to prevent over greasing and pressurising the bearings or some such.

Suppose car wheel bearings last a lifetime without regreasing, only time will tell!

Beast of a machine though.

[Vespasian]

I've greased a strimmer brushcutter in my life and they're all stihl

[Burgess]

I'm looking a new one too but I'm thinking 300 series as I believe these have grease points and are 2 mix not 4 mix which I don't want. But the have the anti vibe that I want.

 

the 460 is 2 mix as well. The only 4 mix's sold in this country are the 90 100 and 130 along with the 550 and 600 blowers. I think one of the augers is as well but that uses one of the first 3 engines.

[adw]

We did a lot of testing on greasing gearbox bearings, and the conclution was over greasing was worse than under greasing, packing it full of grease reduced the life of both bearings and gears.

[Haironyourchest]

Interesting. Good point about wheel bearings, but its not just the bearings that need grease in the brush cutter head, its the pinion gear too. I always assumed the need to top up the grease was because the grease would pick up metal filings from the gears, and slowly become abrasive, but maybe that is not the case and its simply that the grease used to evaporate when hot or find its way out of the older heads.

 

If they can run for three years no probe then I won't worry about it, if there's ever an issue after three or four years I'll just replace the head....

[Haironyourchest]

Other than that how do you find them for vibes Sean? Got the lowest vibe rating of all the brushctters by Stihl, which is what caught my eye. Good reports on reliability and power.