Flex 3401 round 2, concerned

[Sparkle007]

I bought my first flex 3401 a few years back when I owned a detail shop. Well it was running pretty much daily for a couple years until it had enough and died a horrible death! So for a year after that I was using a porter cable 7424xp which was ok but I really wanted another flex. Anyway I bought a new one last week and did my first polish job with it yesterday. A 7 year old dodge ram 3500 dually farm truck. Needless to say it was a heck of a job, roughly 16 hours.

My first flex when it died it was tossing chunks of grease all over the machine and the paint. So I decided to take the backing plate off of my new one and inspect it. There is grease visible. So long story short, is it a normal thing for the flex to have grease visible under the backing plate? Thanks for your help!

You can clearly see a ring of grease near the top and a blob near the bottom

 

[CEE DOG]

I can't tell from the pics if it's the same as mine but I had a scare and contacted them. Sometimes during assembly they put a little more grease under the seal then is needed and when it is heated enough the excess comes out into the area behind the bp. Absolutely no cause for concern in my case and probably yours. It should not come out from behind the bp. Take a better picture and send it to AG to have Flex confirm it's fine but you should be fine.

 

[Sparkle007]

Ok cool thanks for the reply! I was thinking it was probably just excess grease, and hoping that was the case. I was just super paranoid when I saw the grease because of the carnage that happened with my first 3401!

 

[CEE DOG]

Ok cool thanks for the reply! I was thinking it was probably just excess grease, and hoping that was the case. I was just super paranoid when I saw the grease because of the carnage that happened with my first 3401!

I completely understand!!! When I saw this about 6 months ago while switching to my smaller backing plate I contacted AG right away and they got a direct pm in writing back to me from the Flex VP which made me feel very good I had it in writing. I haven't thought about it since. Im the MAN

 

[VR8]

I've always found a bit of grease in my Flex. Every now and then I'll dab it with a paper towel to clean up some of the excess.

Looking at your felt ring Sparkle, it doesn't look like you've added any 3-in-1 oil to it. I always read it was a good idea.

 

[feslope]

I would clean that up, run it awhile and check it again. The bearing itself should be sealed and not leaking. Whatever is leaking would have been added during assembly and should quickly work its way out and be done with. If grease continues to leak out it means something is going dry and could fail. Long story short, if your Flex continues to leak, contact AG.