I have the following questions about GREASE... 1. Do I need to move my case of grease inside to avoid freezing temps in the winter? 2. I try not to overgrease, but does it cause any serious problems? 3. What to do if your grease gun gets caught on a zerk? I broke a zerk fitting some time back trying to get the grease gun off the zerk, and it royally p'd me off. Made me a little gun shy. 4. I assume you can mix synthetic with non-synthetic grease 'cause how are you going to do it otherwise if you change from one to the other? Do you never change? I know the simple answer is to just follow the manufacture's directions, but would like a deeper answer if there's one out there please. Thanks in advance, Chris
2) if an open bearing such as a pin where the excess grease just flows out no, it just makes a mess. If something like a tie rod end where there is a boot or other method of sealing then you don’t want to overgrease. Another area where it’s possible to overgrease is the swing on an excavator 3) just get it off best you can and keep a spare assortment of grease fittings and a couple of spare couplers handy. What’s causing this is pressure lock from the component not taking grease- you have a clog issue. Often it’s not the zerk itself
1) Not a concern, storage temperature won't hurt grease, think of every service truck out there. Warm grease is certainly easier to pump but it will be bearing temperature in a hurry. 3) sometimes you have to cock the lube adapter a little to get the pressure off but you might want to see if that fitting is mushroomed from impact and needs to be changed. I change any pesky leaking fittings.
3) When your coupler becomes locked you can unscrew the cup on the end which allows the jaws to relax. The four Jaw type get stuck more often than the three jaw type. The four jaw type hang on better when greasing but the three jaw go on and off easier. Have tried many couplers some costing over 100 dollars but i find the best one so far is a relatively cheap one you can get on ebay called a g-coupler. Highly recommend. 4) There are hundreds of web pages covering comparability between grease types so you will have to do some research as is a complex subject.
Welcome to HEF, Chris !
Cold weather doesn't affect grease. What it effects is your arm muscles when it's being pumped with a hand gun at 10 degrees.
As far as Synth or Conv grease and using a tube feed gun, keep one for each so do not cross contaminate, I currently have four, one for Organic(Farm Implement) grease, one for Synthetic lube I use on two machines, one for inexpensive conventional lube for a tractor that just gets greased each use and a final one for Hi Temp Hi Shear lube for heavy pivot points(think Loader pins, cylinder eye pins etc.) Used to have a fifth unit for Marine based Greases, got rid of my boats.
In my experience, its not temp, that makes grease separate, its age. Don't buy no more than you can use in a season or 2, and never buy it at auction, that stuff always seems to be bad, LOL!
Why does grease always jump on me!!
I think its a sub set of murphy's law...
Kind of like that single drop of anti-seize that spreads like a California wild fire.
Welcome to the Forums Chris! 1 - You live in north GA, no need to worry about your grease getting too cold. 2- Excessive over greasing makes a mess on a standard pin and bushing. Although I like to see some squirt out. 3 - I stand beside Lock-N-Lube grease gun tips. https://locknlube.com/ 4 - No you don't need to mix grease IMO. I have had the best luck with Phillips 66 Megaplex XD5 No. 2 grease. It's a 5% moly grease that's good with P&B's under load. We get it from our fuel supplier. Also this is money well spent IMO, we have 3. 18V Milwaukee grease gun, tried the Dewalt and it sucked wouldn't keep a prime. Well worth the $180 for the tool only.
On your nose, in your eyebrows, and a little war paint on your cheek?
In places you can't reach too or wonder, how in the $#&* that get there.
Guess it not just me!!!!
We will throw a few tubes of grease on top of the hydraulic tank on the excavator so it warms up & flows better in cool weather . Lunch is on the exhaust manifold . LOL !
Last time I tried that forgot it was there until it exploded, critters liked the old tractor after that A LOT.