Preventative Maintenance for a Makita?

Gang -

Is there anything I'm supposed to do as far as preventative maintenance on a Makita 9227? I've been using it as my only polisher for a long time now, and haven't ever done anything to it. By now, the poor thing has a bunch of hours on it. Is there something I should be doing to keep it in top working condition?

I did find this thread, but I haven't taken mine apart yet. Am I better off leaving it be? I'd hate to get caught out in the middle of a job and have the thing quit on me.

Thanks!

--Karl

 

Maybe replace the brushes?

 

Maybe replace it with a Flex!

 

Yea, you probably gotta replace the carbon brushes soon, the black things on both sides of the Makita. And I would pull it apart just to clean out all the dust, maybe lube up the gears a little.

 

Buy a dewalt.

 

Just keep using it...

 

you could always take it to a machine shop and have them look at it. i remember that some polishing dust does get in it. It ruins the Hitachi, but the Makita isn't the same product.

 

I usually strip mine every 5 cars or so to clean out all the dust and check the brushes. It's a really simple job with only a phillips screwdriver required :thumb:

 

Use it. I have not done one thing to mine and I have a couple hundred hours on it.

 

Update:

Partially out of curiosity, I took the head off of mine to see how things looked inside. The yellow grease that it was packed with at the factory still looked quite good, although much of it had migrated towards the outside of the assembly and away from the gear mechanism. I cleaned it out, and repacked it with a similar amount of Mobil 1 synthetic grease, which is what I had on hand. It's probably either the weather or my imagination, but the machine runs much cooler now than it did last week. It had started getting rather warm after a couple hours' use, but doesn't do so anymore.

BTW< Ken - I do occasionally get tempted by a Flex rotary, but keep deciding against it. I like my Makita a whole lot. It just feels "right" to me. Of course, everybody's different, and if I ever get the opportunity to try a Flex, I might like it even more.

--Karl

 

Any noticeable difference in running noise Karl ?

 

Interesting!

 

None that I can hear. To my ear at least, the noise of the motor overwhelms any noise the gear mechanism makes. The reduced operating temperature may well be because the original grease had mostly found its way out from the gear mechanism. The gears weren't bone dry, but they also weren't particularly well lubricated.

I said earlier that I put the same amount of Mobil 1 grease in, but in retrospect, that's not true. I first used the same amount, put the machine back together, and ran it. Later, I took it back apart and added more grease, put it back together, and ran it again, to make sure no grease came out of any hidden areas. None has. I didn't jam it full of grease or anything like that, just added an arbitrary amount.

 

Hmm. I might need to do this. what grease was it specifically you used? My makita runs fine, but preventative maintanance is a good thing.

 

Mobil 1 synthetic grease. It's in a silver tub, or in a standard cylinder for a grease gun. I didn't use Mobil 1 for any particular reason; it's just what I happened to have on hand. The consistency of it is very similar to that of the original yellow stuff.

 

Karl, maybe you should pick up a pair of carbon brushes just in case. If your carbon brushes do run out, then your machine isn't going to function, and changing them is very easy so I would just order an extra pair just to have lying around when your's finally do go.

I would also pull apart the back of the machine just to clean out any polishing dust that's in there.

 

I'm planning on getting some brushes; I didn't have much luck finding them on the Makita website though.

 

Makita 191963-2 CARBON BRUSH CB-303 SET, 9227C - ToolPartsDirect.com

 

cool. thanks for the link.