One of the main pin grease zerks wont take grease. I've put in a new zerk. Now i have the bucket off there is grease in the two holes of the bushing but when i try to grease it wont come through. I heated the bushing a little and tried to grease and still wont work. what should i try next?
Did it ever take grease for you? Is it a new bushing?
Ive had the machine a year and its never taken grease. I have the bucket off so i would like to fix it.
Use a right angle pick to scrape the grease out of the holes, then remove the zerk and scrape the grease out of there, spray the zerk hole with brake cleaner. Try it again with the grease gun. Keep scraping the bushing holes with the pick. The oil separates out from grease and blocks the passages, but you can usually get them clear eventually. Use a porta power with brake cleaner in the hose, or similar penetrating oil. If all else fails, drill the bushing with a masonry bit sharpened a little sharper than for concrete.
Does the grease gun get hard to pump? Is the. Grease coming out around the fitting?
i used a electric grease gun and yes it pumps quite a little pressure and still no grease coming through bushing. Ive also tried a grease buster from john deere. fill with oil a hit with hammer to bust old grease out but that didn't work either. Ive used a pick to clean below zerk and in the bushing holes and have never found any old dry grease or dirt. If i drill out can i use a regular drill bit?
I am assuming you are working on the bushings in the end of the stick? Main pin that holds bucket on. The grease zerk is on the side of the stick? The grease holes in the bushing should be straight up than. Are they? Do you think they are installed correctly? I have had good luck using a portapower pump treaded into the hole where grease fitting goes. The thin oil in the pump can work its way through there sometimes.
Two things I've seen with bushings and grease holes. The first is the alignment of the hole in the bushing with the grease hole passage in the boss. Plenty of bushings today don't have grooves cut on the OD of the bushing and the hole have to line up for grease to flow through. Bushings that do have grooves on the OD can get turned in the boss so that the grooves also don't line up any longer. I've also seen bushings that have turned slightly and made steel grindings that plugged the holes. The only fix is to knock the bushing out and see what is in there. Unfortunately that usually means destroying the bushing.
You might drill through the bushing with a regular drill bit if you're good, and lucky. A carbide masonry bit will drill through it, slowly, and cheap and easy to find.
If your still pumping grease in and not getting grease to bushing and not getting grease coming out at fitting then you probably have a crack in the remote fill line
Thanks for all of the suggestions. Im assuming that the bushing isnt lined up correctly with the zerk. I dont know how to remove the bushing. So do i learn how to do that or do i just try to drill a hole through it? I dont want to damage the threads for the zerk while trying to drill through the bushing.
Photo of bushing ,fitting location and end of stick would help
1/8" NPT zerk? put a 1/8" pipe nipple in the hole for a guide if you feel more comfortable with it.
If the zerk is a straight shot to the bushing, you can remove the zerk and drill a hole thru the bushing .
update! I was able to get the bushing out and clean the grease groove. I had some metal blocking it. now i have my new to me used bucket on the machine. It have a tag pin with a "flag" on the end. Do you guys weld a strap of metal to the bucket to latch the pin ?