When a joint oozes grease, should I wipe up the residual, or just leave it?
You wipe it off with your fingers and sling it on the kids/grandkids.
To some your question might seem silly--to me not so. Depending on truck or equipment. The fact that I work on trucks-One thing that ****'s me off is #1 people who won't take the time to wipe off the zerk before greasing #2 people who over grease till it's a cowpie then leave the mess smeared and hanging so you end up with it all over your sleeves, hair, face and ears. Collecting dirt and crap as it rolls through a unpaved lot. Only making for a bigger mess when it comes time to repair something. #3 jack ***'s who won't scrape the old piles of grease from the edge of a fifth wheel with grease all over the frame. DOT loves seeing that-Excessive Grease On Frame {that's a ticket because they can't see loose nuts and bolts}.
KW Project sleeper out floor is 1/2" thick with thrown u-joint grease, just nasty to get around and WILL get cleaned when first chance after running.
I prefer to save that task for a minion if I can... but yeah I clean up what comes out. I leave the little bit on the fitting to keep them from rusting but wipe them off at the next greasing.
A job is a job minion or no minion. And if no one teaches the minion the minion will never take it upon his minion self.
True, my one grease minion needed several instruction periods to get to satisfactory levels, and remember which end of the grease gun to take off.
I scraped on the excavator for an afternoon, removing all the hardened grease. Now that it is clean, it is nothing to waste a few rags and remove the fresh stuff that comes out. Keep after it.
I do that on occasion. I scraped up a machine for near a day a while back but made it look so much better.
Yes I have not pressure washed that machine but now I would do so. it makes a hell of a mess to wash all that down on the ground, if you don't have a dedicated wash bay. I try to physically remove all I can before pressure washing, and just stay the heck away from the pins and joints, and concentrate on the large surfaces. Those greasy areas are normal. People who go all anal on them are just forcing water where it does not belong.