Near impossible to remove grease gun

[msengstock]

Anyone have this problem?

Of all the items in my shed with zerks, my JD x729 is the only one that it's near impossible to remove the grease gun from the zerks. The gun slides on and off everything then else with little effort. Last night I had to pry the gun off a zerk on my FEL with a screw driver.

Anyone have this experience are the JD zerks different somehow that makes them hard to use a standard grease gun? I have 3 grease gun, and all of the tips are like this on the Deere.

Thanks

Mike

 

[eanjay]

I sometimes have the same problem. I find it easier to get the grease-gun off the zirk, if I wait for the pressure to ease off the fitting. Takes longer with some fitting than others.

EanJay

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

Same here. I greased a number of fittings on the FEL and MMM the other day. They all went on easy enough, but some, especially on one of the mower spindles was a real bear to get off.

 

[wxboy]

If you pull it off at an angle(as much of an angle as you can) it should come off much easier than pulling it straight back. I have the same problem with mine.

 

[Bird]

A quick, hard jerk has sometimes worked, pulling it off at an angle has sometimes worked, and either of those methods sometimes tears the zerk out of whatever you're greasing. About the only sure method to get it off without damaging anything is to loosen (unscrew) the tip of the grease gun. That will loosen the "fingers" that hold onto the zerks.

 

[msengstock]

A quick, hard jerk has sometimes worked, pulling it off at an angle has sometimes worked, and either of those methods sometimes tears the zerk out of whatever you're greasing. About the only sure method to get it off without damaging anything is to loosen (unscrew) the tip of the grease gun. That will loosen the "fingers" that hold onto the zerks.

Ah, I'll have to try the loosening the tip of the grease gun theory. I have one tip from an old grease gun that works fine on everything, the other 3 from newer ones work fine on everything but the Deere zerks.

I did rip a zerk out back when I did the first 8 hr greasing on the FEL - thank god it ripped out mainly because it wasn't screwing in very well and I was able to screw it back in.

 

[Oldtrout]

Ah, I'll have to try the loosening the tip of the grease gun theory. I have one tip from an old grease gun that works fine on everything, the other 3 from newer ones work fine on everything but the Deere zerks.

Having sold grease guns in the past,one of the biggest problems we found was the tip on the gun wouldn't stay on or wouldn't come off the zerk. In most cases we told the customer to just finger tighten the tip on a new gun or replacement tip.Most guns "claim" to put out 7000 to 10,000 lbs pressure,when you combine that to a tight fit between zerk and tip its almost impossible to remove tip from zerk. Should the tip be extremely hard to remove under pressure just grab a 1/2 or 9/16 wrench and loosen the tip it will or should release some pressure from the jaws in the tip,and come off quite easily saving your zerk. . Hope this helps.

 

[msengstock]

Does it matter that I couldn't get the gun off the zerk with an empty gun and didn't pump it? I was just testing to see if a new gun my brother gave me as a gift had the same problem before I went through the trouble of loading it with grease.

Also, my other equipment (simplicity regent w/deck, DR lawn vac, etc) with zerks seem to have more rounded or spherical zerk heads and the deere looks like it has a bit of a lip or ridge around the circumference of the zerk head and the back of the head isnt as round as the tip - which might be the reason it seems to "grip" the head vs. slip over.

I might be seeing things but I figured I'd just throw that theory out there.

 

[Bird]

I don't suppose there's ever been any mass produced product that didn't have an occasional bad one, so maybe you simply have one bad zerk that needs to be replaced.

 

[msengstock]

I know what you mean, but it's all of them on that machine. I have one tip out of 3 that I can get off fairly easily so I swap that one back and forth, it would be a pain in the butt if I lose that one - I was just curious if anyone else has this problem and if it was isolated to the type of zerk Deere uses or if it was just me. Looks like a few people have the "gorilla grip" zerks like I do.

I use the sd poly grease and the hd lithium which are compatible greases, so using the same tip is no big deal - I think the 'working tip' came from a cheap 8 oz walmart grease gun.

 

[Bird]

I was just curious if anyone else has this problem and if it was isolated to the type of zerk Deere uses or if it was just me.

That I wouldn't know. If Deere uses an unusual kind of zerk, I didn't know it, but then there's a lot of things I don't know.

 

[davitk]

Don't feel bad; Kubota has the same problem Seems to be a metric/american anomaly.

 

[msengstock]

Thanks for those pics - at least now I know I'm not losing my mind!

 

[BayouMan]

Bird is right on with the zert problem. Just loosen the grease gun fitting a little and it will pull right off. Just have to remember to tighten it back up after or you will have grease going everywhere except where it is supposed to go.

Mike

 

[Ken Cunningham]

When i was greasing my fel the other day the grease gun was wanting to get stuck and it was alot easier to get it off by tipping the gun at an angle.

 

[jetdoctor]

after applying grease...push forward with the tip before trying to pull the tip off the zerk. This forward movement releases the fingers inside the tip head and facilitates easy removal. Remember that when pumping the grease in, you have created a "grip" and that grip needs to be released before trying to remove the tip.

 

[Karl2]

I bought a new grease gun today and instead of risking having it stuck to the tractor I tried it on a spare fitting I had on hand and now I can't remove the fitting from the new gun's tip. Arghh!

 

[slowzuki]

I fought with the Kubota zerks and had to loosen my guns tip eventually. I have broke 2 zerks now trying to get the gun off. All 6 of my grease guns have the same problem on the Kubota loader zerks which are SAE. Some of my grease guns are 40 years old, some are brand new. None work with every zerk on the loader even with the push it back on or the angle removal tricks.

 

[T-Bow]

I must have missed this thread when it was originally posted but I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person with this problem. I even went as far as purchasing a JD grease gun figuring that maybe there was something different about the tip. After all was done, the solution that worked the best was to loosen the tip. I didn't know about the push on to pull off trick so I will have to see how that works the next time I grease something.