'61 Kenmore dryer lubrication

[ladyk]

Hi there! Just broke the blower belt on the old gal, so I figured it was time to tear down and clean/lube everything. Question: what do you use to lube the rear drum bearing? This is the newer configuration that does not have a hole on the shaft. Should I use grease, oil, and what type? Also curious what to lube the tensioner pulley with? Are these oilite bearings from the factory? Thank you all for any help you can provide.

 

[maytag85]

Do you have any photos of your ‘61 Lady Kenmore dryer? Photos will help determine what servicing needs to be done to it.

 

[ladyk]

[No message]

 

[maytag85]

The rear bearing will need to be greased, and the blower/fan bearing will need to be lubricated with zoom spout turbine oil.

 

[kenmoreman]

Blower bearing

If you take the blower assembly out and separate the plates you will find the oil wick. You can pop the clip off and saturate the wick and replace the clip. Much more effective.

 

[ladyk]

The blower has been taken apart and lubed. I'm just not sure if the rear drum bearing takes grease or oil. Prior to '61 they had an oil hole and wick for the bearing. It was eliminated in '61. The only repair book I have says the bearing is "lubricated for life". (who's life? hahahaha)

 

[swestoyz]

Not sure of the material used on the Kenmore/Whirlpool bearing, but Paul got some great advice to rehab the bearing on a '59 Frigidaire. Looks like GM used a bronze bearing.

If you're working with a softer metal bearing on your Kenmore that was "lubricated for life", maybe give this a try?

https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?76666

Ben

 

[sfh074]

Here's what I did on mine .....

Once modified, I simply take the bolt out of the end of the drum shaft and use the grease gun to lube the bearing once assembled. This can be done on all years that have this bronze donut bushing and shaft arrangement. 

 

Did this on my '62. Never have to worry about it drying out and having to disassemble just to re-lube this bushing.

 

Drill thru the side of the drum shaft half way, and chamfer the hole as shown in the 2nd pic. The threads in my drum shaft go down about half way so drill a grease gallery below the threads down to meet the side hole so you can get grease to flow down the center of the drum shaft and up into the side hole and under the bushing. Pic 3 arrow is the bolt to remove, take a grease gun, force grease into the bolt threads and grease flows under bushing.

 

I did this trick for the lower pulley shaft as well as seen in pic 3.

[this post was last edited: 3/5/2021-21:01]

 

[sfh074]

It appears ....

that this '61 Kenmore had a steel on steel shaft to bushing configuration from the initial photos, which I find a bit odd.