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Thread: Stihl battery power

  1. #241
    Senior Member NLALM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    Guess what I'm doing tomorrow

    Steve I actually thought of this today, and was wondering if it may need greasing, I will let you know what mine is like, Ill get a picture and put up.
    Fred have you had a look under that cover ? I'm surprised its only plastic, I don't think the husky has a grease nipple , but I might be wrong

  2. #242
    MEMBER Fred's mowing's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    Quote Originally Posted by steveo View Post
    Fred,

    I just had a quick look under the cover of my noisy 65 and then compared it to my jammed 85. It is really easy to take that cover off and there might lay part of the problem. It is easy for dirt and water to get in. Dirt leads to the tolerances being affected and in the case of the 85 lead to the blade being derailed (so to speak) of that little cam thingy. The result was metal bits all thru it due to it being derailed and the cam thingy hitting the side walls. I can un jam it but its only good for parts now.

    As far as the noisy 65 went that cam thingy that drives the blade looked really loose but what struck me most was that it was totally absent of grease which is the other issue with having a loose gear box cover that lets water in.

    My theory is this. These things are designed for home owners, they don't have a grease nipple to grease the gearbox like pro stuff should have. I reckon people in the game who are using these need to pull that cover off, give it a quick blow out and grease it lightly every time they change the mower oil or whatever. This may or may not explain your bearing failures. I gave it a quick spray with lithium grease and it sounds better but I'll pull it apart again and put some thicker grease on it and see how that goes.

    Without greasing a home owner would still easily get past the warranty period. I'm not sure what Sthil recommend as far as maintenance goes but I don't recall lubrication of the gearbox being a requirement. Phew, its beer time.
    Hi Steveo, yer the manual suggests the dealer(stihl specialist) lube it every 50hrs.
    To use it on a commercial basis, thats just not feasible.
    Good thing is to grease it it only requires seconds to unscrew the cover.
    I prefer to do this than even if it had a grease nipple, that way I can direct the grease at the exact spots that need lubing, rather than just pumping the grease in.
    It is poss to over fill the gearbox .

    Id like to have a good look at the husky, haven't seen it in the flesh but from pics it looks a similar design but, not as streamlined.
    So the 85 is def finished ?

    Cheers Fred.

  3. #243
    Senior Member steveo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    Quote Originally Posted by Fred's mowing View Post
    Hi Steveo, yer the manual suggests the dealer(stihl specialist) lube it every 50hrs.
    To use it on a commercial basis, thats just not feasible.
    Good thing is to grease it it only requires seconds to unscrew the cover.
    I prefer to do this than even if it had a grease nipple, that way I can direct the grease at the exact spots that need lubing, rather than just pumping the grease in.
    It is poss to over fill the gearbox .

    Id like to have a good look at the husky, haven't seen it in the flesh but from pics it looks a similar design but, not as streamlined.
    So the 85 is def finished ?

    Cheers Fred.
    I should have read the manual. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll start maintining them properly now. When the dealer had a look at the 85, we kinda came to a conclusion that it wasn't really worth fixing although one day i will try and get a price on parts. The 85 has plenty of grease in it so I assume the dealer applied it when they were looking at it.

  4. #244
    Senior Member NLALM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    This is the hla65 when I opened it up I was surprised at how much gunk was in there , and it was a bit rusty in places.
    I blew all the crap out with the compressor , then gave it a spray with wd then some stihl gearbox grease put together and it seems to be running much smoother and quitter, might have to do this every couple of months. It really surprises me that stihl have made them like this , it should be water proof
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  5. #245
    Senior Member NLALM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    The has 86 not as bad as the 65 but still not great ,

    the gear ready for a week
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  6. #246
    Senior Member 4 Gardens's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    Quote Originally Posted by NLALM View Post
    The has 86 not as bad as the 65 but still not great ,

    the gear ready for a week
    How do you carry all of that on the bike
    And the bike colour does not match!

  7. #247
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    seriously underwhelmed by the guts of that....l wouldn't consider that remotely commercial quality




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  8. #248
    Senior Member steveo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    Quote Originally Posted by NLALM View Post
    This is the hla65 when I opened it up I was surprised at how much gunk was in there , and it was a bit rusty in places.
    I blew all the crap out with the compressor , then gave it a spray with wd then some stihl gearbox grease put together and it seems to be running much smoother and quitter, might have to do this every couple of months. It really surprises me that stihl have made them like this , it should be water proof
    Thanks for the photos. Do you live on the coast? Mine didn't have any rust. You could seal it with grease by running a bead along the plastic cover edges. Maybe fred has a better idea about that. After applying more grease today to both the HLA65 and HLA86, mine is definetly quieter (the rattle is completely gone) however I notice the HSA86 runs a lot smoother than the hla65. The Hla65 is older by a year but seems to vibrate/wobble a lot more and this transfers into the operators hand, can anyone confirm this? I may have got a lemon from the factory but the two are designed differently so its possibly a design issue.

    You see that star shaped plate on top. Its held on by 4 screws on the hsa86 and 2 screws and a circlip on the hla65. I reckon that needs to come off for the bearing housing to be greased properly. This might explain freds failed bearings. It was easy to remove on the HSA86 but I didn't have a circlip tool to get it off the HLA65. Other that I'm toying with the idea of applying gearbox oil rather than grease as it penetrates further even though it will get thrown of quicker. But given that plastic cover comes off so easily it may not be an issue.

    Question for fred. How often where you applying grease before you had the issues? And also do you pull that top plate off when greasing?

  9. #249
    Senior Member steveo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    Just noticed you live in newcastle NLALM, that would explain the rust.

  10. #250
    Member of forum ASTRO's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    Quote Originally Posted by NLALM View Post
    The has 86 not as bad as the 65 but still not great ,

    the gear ready for a week
    The irony of ' GREEN TECHNOLOGY '.

  11. #251
    Senior Member steveo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    Quote Originally Posted by Redeye View Post
    seriously underwhelmed by the guts of that....l wouldn't consider that remotely commercial quality
    Yep, it is by no means commercial quality Redeye. But they definetly have their advantages that make up for that. If one of these tools fail I can go straight in to the Sthil dealer and get a new one as they are priced accordingly and they tend to have them in stock. The convenience may still be worth it. Also it has become apparent to me I haven't been maintaining them properly, now that I know what I know I reckon I will get a better run from them. Still early days though.

    I had another ignition coil fail on my cox ride last week. (The last one lasted 3 months). Took a week to get a replacement from evil bay as no local dealer stocks them. I would have happily paid double or triple what I paid on EBAY if I could just waltz in to a shop and buy that coil as the ride on sat idle for 5 days in the busiest time of the year. This is a major issue these days. No one seems to stock parts.

  12. #252
    Senior Member NLALM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    I dropped into the stihl dealer today to see if the new hedge trimmers were out yet , seems not till early next year.

    I told him about my concerns over these covers and he agreed they should have a proper seal. The two new ones coming are very commercial looking but you have to wear the battery.

    The quality may not be the best but benefits of using these machines far outweighs the negatives. The hla 65 which is the most used has made me a lot of money this year , so really if it blew up tomorrow its probably done more than its supposed to. But in saying that mine is running perfectly and in the last month or so has been flogged.

    Yeah steve I'm in Newcastle and most of my work is close to the beach soo probably explains the rust, I will keep an eye on it from now on. Nothing new though I used to grease my petrol hedge trimmers too , so that's not a downfall of battery power

  13. #253
    Senior Member conrad's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    Do you spray Lanox or similar when you've finished using them? If you know it's not waterproof a quick squirt into the guts of it might help keep the rust at bay if the grease is a bit light on.

    Also while we're talking about this - what type of grease would you use for hedge trimmer gears? I've only ever had mine serviced and sharpened at the shop, but thinking I will do my own now. I'm curious what grease they used tho. It had a really distinct smell, almost sweet smelling??

  14. #254
    Senior Member NLALM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    Mate I just use stihl grease for whippy heads , I know its exy but I just picked it up at the dealer one day.

    Conrad how about an update on your husky gear you have had it for a while how is it handling it , I really want to know more about their whippy

  15. #255
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    Default Re: Stihl battery power

    l use lithium grease for hedgers, whippies etc




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    "All sin is washed away in the Holy goodness of Beer"
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