Hi, I have a zerk fitting that is not accepting grease. I took the fitting off and filled it with brake cleaner as I was advised now I'm trying to use my grease gun to force the brake cleaner in there under pressure. The only problem is the grease keeps squirting out the sides. Any ideas how I could really get some pressure in there?
What does the seeking supply grease to ? Did you stick a piece of hard wire or something in there and see what came out?
Tony you have a clogged pin which will require removal of the pin, cleaning and re-installing. What part of the machine is pin/fitting on?
If grease is leaking between the grease gun coupler and the zerk, then tighten up your grease gun (tighten the front part of the coupler against the body of the coupler), or get one of these . Or maybe it's easier to pull the pin? Sometimes even pulling the pin doesn't free it up if the bushing isn't lined up with the grease hole, you can drill a new hole in the bushing if you have access.
It's this zerk fitting on the undercarriage. I took it off and put grease through it so it's not clogged. I even installed a new zerk just in case.
I'm going to try the grease coupler. It claims a leak proof seal. That's what I need. Thanks for the suggestion. Is there some type of chemical that will soften up hardened grease easily?
Delmer, are you saying that the hole that the zero fitting goes into may not be lined up so that the grease can get in the bearing. I don't know if I can get in there with a drill bit but if I can should I just drill until there's no resistance? I just bought this machine at auction so I don't know it's history.
Tony it's not the fitting itself that is clogged, rather the pin or internal mechanism it's greasing. I am not familiar with that style of undercarriage but I'll give you an example. The bucket pin has a groove in it that goes all around the pin, lined up with the grease fitting. Pump the grease in and the groove allows grease to coat 360 degrees of the pin. When this groove gets clogged up with dirt and whatever it stops taking grease - usually due to not greasing it. At this point the pin needs to be removed, cleaned and re-installed. Someone else with more knowledge of this set up can give you more advice. There's heavy rust on those metal components, it's probably clogged internally.
One option I have had some luck with with stubborn pins and bushing that are usually but not always caused by too infrequent greasing. If yo have a Portapower type hydraulic tool remove the grease fitting and using what ever pipe fittings you need to connect the coupler for the Portapower pump to the stubborn hole. Then pump the jack oil in to the joint. Just use a little caution as there is a slight chance the pipe fittings will fail under the pressure. I've never had that problem but there is always a first time! If you can get the oil to go through it will sometimes soften up the crap that is plugging things up. Then have a go at it with grease and keep greasing a couple times a day for a while and you may get lucky. If that fails do not wait any longer than absolutely necessary to disassemble as far as needed to clean everything out. If you wait too long you will be replacing hard parts and not just cleaning them! Not familiar with this exact machine and it's application, but I always try to convince people to grease before parking a machine after it has been used especially if in wet or muddy applications. This will flush out the crap that will cause your problem.