I just got a new (to me) skid steer- a 2006 Komatsu SK-1020 with approx 800 hours. I have just gone through a complete service so that I know where everything is on the machine. As I was greasing it, I found several pins that weren't taking grease well. 3 out of 4 of the bucket pivots wouldn't take grease at all and the lift cylinders on both sides took a few pumps easy and then locked up. I took out the bucket pins, which were completely dry but showed no wear, cleaned the gunk out of the grease hole on the pin, greased the pin and put them back in. They all then took grease great. On the lift cylinder pins, when I took them out, they had grease on them and the holes weren't clogged. As I pushed the pins in, I would give it a few pumps every 1/2" or so. The farther I pushed them in, the harder it got to give it grease. By the time it was all the way it, it didn't want to take grease again. I had the pressure off the pins enough to push them in and out with relative ease, so it doesn't seem like it would be that the cylinder wasn't in a relaxed state. Would drilling another hole for the grease to come out of 90 degrees off the original hole help? Any ideas? Thanks for all the input- I really appreciate it.
Take a disk grinder and cut a groove across the top of the grease hole lengthwise in the pin but not right to the end. Gives the grease more surface area to spread from. Regards D.D.
Great idea- thanks!
I have run into this many times over my career as an underground heavy equipment mechanic. We had such a problem with bucket pins because the loaders are mucking from very wet muck piles at times and the fines seems to work there way into the lower bucket pin grease holes from the bushing side. Sometimes pulling the grease zerk and running a long drill bit in would get close enough that you could force the grease the rest of the way with an hp grease gun. If that dont work, you can plumb a port-a-power up to the zerk threads and pump it up, sometimes heating the pin is necessary to help loosen plugged section. Last resort without pulling the pin and drilling it out is to roll the bucket back and forth with the port-a-power pressure on it. You can also try an hp grease gun while working any applicable joint, sometimes it saves messing with a port-a-power. Good luck
Sounds like your pin or bore is not perfectly straight. Try rotating the offending part to a different location, or positioning it so the pin is loaded the other way. (i.e. - if you park it with the cylinder under a little tension, try a little extension) Just be safe! ISZ