Experiences opening clogged grease fitting canals will be appreciated.:notworthy I know I can drop in another fitting if that is the problem, get a torch and apply some heat any other tricks? Do those things you fill with fluid work and hit with a hammer work, I forgot the name of them? Thanks for sharing any tips. I know on my Lull I have to take the load off the bushing sometimes to get in the grease. Sorry if this is repetitive question here.
grease fitting 's are also know as zerk's If you can find yourself one of those Hydrulic hand pump's( see link ) for a jack ,fill it with tranny oil (red)...make up a pipe fitting to fit the hole ...there well be a pressure gauge .. hook it all up ..give yourself about 5 -800 psi ...and have some one run the machine to get the joints moving while maintaining the pressure ..you maybe able to blow it out .. you can do the same with a grease gun ..preferably with a longer hose and the gun be air powered or electric ..and screwed into the zerk hole you can also use compressed air and a blow gun with a hose using some Varosol ...blow what you can out using air and Varosol ..then hook the air hose up to the zerk hole and move the machine http://www.orionehydropower.com/pcat-gifs/products-small/single-speed-hand-pump.jpg
I have used atf tranny fluid in the grease gun,it works.The grease gun needs to be in good shape or it leak all over .
I take a drill to the passage, sometimes it works if it's just packed dirt and grease. If there is a bushing that has turned and closed off the passage you can re drill if it's brass, if it's hardened steel not so lucky
I carry a squirt can with motor oil in it and I find that oiling the bushing for two or three days will usually open them up to take grease again.It has worked for me countless times.I don't sleep well if I have a frozen fitting.Ron G
Thanks for all the tips :drinkup:drinkup
i saw dad unscrew a zerk on the 941 and put a blasting cap in there. that was the cleanest passage way that machine has seen since it was new. worked well....still stood on the other side when we set it off
Never tried it, but recall someone saying about it. Take a welding rod, knock the flux off. Hold it with pliers, heat with a torch to just about red hot, and shove it in....it'll burn it's way through the old hard grease if that is the issue.
If you have a good high pressure washer... the hot ones... take the fitting out, put on the strait stream nozzle, crank the heat up pretty good, and shove the nozzle right in the hole. The hot water will expand the bushing/bearing area, and circulates around and through the whole area. Eventually, it will wash all the old grease and crud out, and then you have a good clean place for the new grease. This also works good for loosening those wedge type axle clamps on farm tractor duals. Be prepared for some rather serious blow back... I use a full face type crash helmet for protection... :cool2 It's messy, but it works good. One more... it also works really good on those "stuck to the rim" old tire beads that 49cat112 had to deal with... just blast around at the tire/rim interface, and they loosen right up. The hot and high pressure water, is what does the trick... OCR...
If it´s clogged, that means there´s a contaminant in it. You don´t want to inject an abrasive contaminant into a joint that your trying to lubricate. Just have some replacement zerks handy and switch it out if it won´t take grease. They don´t cost all that much and it´s faster and easier than trying the brute force approach..
A friend of my dads has a grease gun that you hit with a hammer and it "blasts" grease into the zerk....It is made especially for zerks that will not take grease...
The company that I used to work for had 18 b-hoes. You very seldom ran the same one for very long. I was always very adamant about greasing my machine every day. most of the other guys were not. This resulted in lots of dry fittings that would not grease. I always carried some welding rods, and carb (spray can) cleaner with me. I would pull the fitting out,and try to work the rod into the hole using the spray to help flush the dirt out. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. I have also ran the machine a hour or so and let things warm up,repeated steps above and had things clear upp for me.
This is an interesting thread focusing on a problem so many of us have had to deal with; pin won't take grease. A lot of useful tips have been exchanged, lot's of good ideas. But I want to go a step further and focus on the one I think is the most difficult to repair...easily. That's the one where the hole (or 2 holes) in the bushing is not in-line with the grease fitting. The fitting has been neglected, dirt has entered bushing and pin from outside, worked it's way to that little hole. More neglect. One grain of dirt at a time accumulates into the hole, getting packed tighter by the force of the pin, until one day, someone finally tries to grease it. Ain't gonna' happen. You could take the grease fitting out and drill a new hole. More often than not, that hardened bushing say's "yeah, right!" You submit to the beast, go ahead and knock the pin out. Pick the dirt out of the hole, try to grease again, only to find the dirt's been crammed down the small groove that leads from hole to grease fitting. "Arrrgggg, now I have to knock the #@%*^^# bushing out!!!" :Banghead Oh, the trouble that could be avoided if we would more often pick up that dirty greasy grease gun. :notworthy
best remedy is more maintainence... how ever ..sometimes guys .lots of grease can ruin a seal if so equiped ... i almost blew a few after the service tec and i got talking over a coffee ...and he had a few parts on hand to show me .. more is not always better ...Know your equipment and the manual
Your right, there are some seal installations that can't handle excessive grease. But generally, when your talking pins/bushing on cylinders, booms, etc., if the seal is installed properly, grease it everyday if your so inclined. Properly installed pin/bushing seals should have the lip going outward so as to prevent the ingress of dirt, yet allow grease to come out when an oiler gets a little happy with his air grease gun. If the seal is put in backwards, kick the mechanic who did it! :Banghead