Bottom of hydraulic piston that operates boom does not take grease anymore. Changed fittings, tried an air grease gun, tried flushing out fitting, and ZERO success. It cries desperately for grease. Trying to remove pin in order to replace. The thing will not move. Any suggestions or recommendations. Thank you!!!
Hello 4wd, Maybe spray some PBBlaster,WD-40,Liquid Wrench or some such concoction in & around the joint? I've heard that diesel does a fair job of penetrating stubborn joints as well. Is there a pin that can't be seen? HTH J
Something to try to get it to take grease. Get a good grease gun with a flexible hose on it. Empty grease out of grease gun and fill instead with diesel or WD-40. Remove grease fitting from Bobcat and the grease fitting connector from the gun and screw the hose directly into the hole for the fitting and pump the gun to force the diesel into the joint. With some luck the diesel will soften the crap in the joint and then open it up enough to take grease. If this works grease the machine every time it's used even if only for a couple hours. Best time to grease is after working when getting ready to park to flush out dirt and mud that got in while working.
they make grease fitting cleaning tools its brass and you put pb blaster, wd 40, diesel fuel, oil, basically any penetrating fluid or oil and you hammer on it so itll force the fluid into the fitting loosening the grease or dirt allowing the pin to take grease again. they work pretty decent but if you cant do that or soak it so the dirt frees up and put a new grease fitting in it then youll have to pull the pin and clean it.
I had one that would not take grease on blade....the only way I found was to remove pin and clean holes/grease races out from inside of bushing with a penetrating oil and air. It sounds like your pin and bushing may be scored and hole plugged hard to say until pin is removed.
Had the same thing happen to me on a 323, the bush had turned inside the ram and so there was no passage for the grease. Unscrew the grease nipple and put a thin screwdriver in to see how far it goes or remove the pin and see if you can pass it through. i had to remove pin and grease by hand until I took the ram to a workshop and they pressed it out and replaced it back in line. The bush was not scored or the pin, it must have just seized the one time and turned in the ram. Still using same pin and bush and it takes grease fine now.
That sounds like a good idea. Would that work on a pneumatic grease gun? Eric12- I have that tool and its works on all of our other machines but this one is tough. The Bobcat technician told me to heat the thing up and then try removing it. I put the torch on it and tried banging it out but I got a little nervous about that heat transferring to the piston and causing damage. What are the thoughts on heating? Appreciate everyone's responses and help!
Another thing that has worked for us involves a Porta-power pump. We adapt a coupler for the Porta-power to the grease fitting hole and use the pump to put the light weight oil under pressure work on the hardened up dirt and grease. About 75% of the time this does work. Of all the methods the best in some ways is to remove pin and bushing and clean every thing up and reassemble with added attention to future greasing.
Don't bang on a pin you're trying to remove, you'll mushroom the head and make it much harder to get out. If you can't press it out, don't bother banging any more. I don't know about bobcats, but some bushings/housings have a groove that allows the grease to travel 180 degrees from the zerk to the hole through the bushing, obviously you can't clean that grease out easily if it gets hardened or packed with dirt. But as long as the zerk is pointed right at the middle of the pin/bushing you can drill a new hole through the bushing put the zerk back in and try to grease it. Sharpen up a carbide masonry bit if you don't have anything else that will drill the bushing.
Does the pin have a roll pin in one of the outer collars of the bushing area??? We had a heck of a time with a pin on a thumb that had a roll pin holding the pin in place. once the roll pin came out the main pin came out alot easier...hahah
Had same prob. Tried everything. Ended up using grease fitting tool filled with some solvent? can't remember, maybe acetone or laq thinner .Tried the hammer on the tool but no go. I positioned boom so I could use my floor jack to compress the tool.Let it sit as long as the pressure held. After a while I got that to go through. Then I had to progressively use a heavier liquid, pb ,3in 1 , motor oil etc until it would finally take grease. Totally forgot until I saw this post. no problem since, 4 yrs or so.