I have a Zerk fitting that won't take grease on my blade linkage. Do the grease clearing tools that you tap with a hammer work or is there a better way? Thanks!
Yair...JD If your Zerk fitting is what we call a "grease nipple" then first thing I do is back them out and snap them into the gun and see if it will take grease that way. If it comes clear you may be able to screw it back in and maybe by taking a bit of weight on the blade or giving the slack a bit of a wriggle you may be lucky and the pin will grease...often though if it hasn't taken grease for a while you will need to dismantle it and manualy clear the grease ways in the pin or bush. While it's disassembled attach the gun and make sure it's flowing clean fresh grease before you put it back together. I am not familiar with any tools to clear the blockage. Best of luck with it. Cheers.
Replace the Zerk with a new one. Clear the gallery beyond the Zerk, spray in a penetrating oil, remove the grease coupler on the gun and attach the hose directly and give it pressure, 'excercise' the linkage while under pressure. As a last resort, you may have to remove the pin and clear the blockage.
Previous owner on my D3, didn't grease a couple zerks, ever. Causing the hardened bushing to spin, blocking the grease path. Major pain in the butt. That hardened bushing ate up a bunch of drill bits. :/
Search "take grease" there are alot of great post in several threads about this topic. They are scattered over a few pages and you will have to find them as there are other topics mixed in with that search.
Some heat will often get them to flow. I use a plumbers torch to warm them, not scorch the paint.
This sometimes works , first get a regular high pressure (10,000lb) grease gun with a rubber hose with a good coupling and pump as hard as you can and while the grease fitting is still under high pressure hit the pin with a hammer and it will usually break free.
Drilling out the passage works sometimes, if it is packed with hard grease and dirt it's worth a try
I have one of those grease busters that you hit with a hammer some times they work some times they dont. They work best if it is a straight zerk and you use kroil or penatrating oil in them instead of grease if it takes the penatrating oil then try some grease.
You can also adapt a portapower hydraulic RAM to the removed zerk,the thin oil and hi pressure may free it up also a little heat can help as long as the bushings are not rolled or the grease holes are galled over with metal.
Thanks for all of your help. I replaced the grease fitting and this fixed the problem.