Lubrication via zirc fittings

[fredoroberts]

Now that I have a whopping 30 hours under my belt on my used (1300 hours) B2150 with LA 350 loader vowed to find all of the loader grease fittings and lube the heck out of them. A few questions came up:

How do you know when enough is enough? I notice that as I keep pumping, more grease comes out of one area of the joint than another. Should I be looking for uniform overflow? There are two fittings at the operator end of the loader one each on the right and left side up high. There is a hole in the loader frame to access them. When I tried to pump grease into them they appear to be plugged! Worse yet the grease gun got stuck on the fitting and would not come off! Had to raise and lower the loader while pulling hard to get if off. Is the fitting plugged, or is could the joint be plugged with old dried grease?

Since it looks like I might have to remove the loader to really get at the grease fitting I wonder if anyone has found an easier way to unplug the fitting/lube point?

 

[gordon]

Pump the grease until it comes out, it will never come out even on both sides of the joint due to the position of the joint at the time of greasing.
To answer your question on the zerk fittings--if you can't pump the grease in it's either a bad fitting or plugged that fitting is the worst to get to on the loader and might have been overlooked by the previous owner. To replace the fitting use a deepwell socket to remove the fitting.
To reinstall the new fitting take some nuts and put them into the socket that way the threads will be sticking out of the socket allowing you to thread the new fitting on and this will also hold the fitting square in the socket. Another thing that you can put in the socket is a papertowel and then push the new fitting in the socket, this will also hold the fitting in place allowing you to thread it onto your loader. Hope this helps
Gordon

 

[Bird]

Very rarely do you get grease to come out uniformly around a greased joint. I just pump grease until a little bit comes out somewhere. When possible, it's nice if there's no load on the joint being greased so the grease does have a better chance of getting all the way around the joint.

And grease fittings can be plugged with dirt or other foreign material. That's the reason I always wipe them off with a rag before putting the grease gun on them. And of course, in some cases they can be damaged by being hit with something; bent, mashed, etc. If one won't take grease, I replace it; if the grease gun doesn't push any debris on through, I'd say there's a pretty slim chance of you unplugging it any other way.. In most cases, I think you'll find they are metric on the tractor and SAE sizes on the loader.

Bird

 

[_RaT_]

Fredo, since this is a used tractor, I would pump as much new grease as necessary through the joint to remove the old grease. You will know that you have done a decent job when new grease pours out. First, I would do this for several reasons. I would want to remove as much of the old grease and all metal debris as possible, this will be important if the previous owner did not do greasing on a regular basis. Secondly, some grease can be incompatible with other types and its best to replace all of the old grease with the new grease, or as much as can be done through the zirc. As for the clogged zircs, if they are indeed clogged, replace them, if that is not the problem, you may want to remove the pin from the bushing, just be sure to have the joint in a neutral or non loaded position as possible. Once you have everything greasing properly, maintain the joint with just enough grease so that only a small amount pushes out, don't worry that it only comes out just one side of the joint. I almost always wipe off the grease because I will find a way to get my hand in it when I don't have a rag. Also be sure to wipe the zirc clean before you even stick the gun to it. The zerk connector can get stuck to the zirc when you pump down hard, remember, your applying over a 1000lbs of pressure. If you can't remove it by flexing it sideways, release the pressure in the zirc fitting by loosening the connector from the hose or tube. Rat

P.S. as cheap as grease is, I have been using synthetic grease exclusively.

 

[TomG]

I had a similar problem with the upper boom arm fittings. They were accessed through holes in the arm frame. It was virtually impossible to get a gun on these zircs. I replaced the 90-degree fittings with
45-degree zircs. It's easy to grease now.

There was some jerkiness when I lowered a heavy bucket slowly. I figured there was a hydraulics problem. The jerkiness is gone now that the pins are properly greased. Guess the previous owner had problems with those 90-degree fittings too.

 

[Dick]

Cheap at half the price. Replace all of the fittings and start with new ones. I aggree that the 45 degree are better than 90. No angle is better yet.

Years ago when I worked in a gas station, the old hand mechanic told me to stop pumping grease at the first sign it was coming out. Also as stated before, clean fitting with rag before and after.

 

[fredoroberts]

Great answers; What the heck are these anyway?

Thanks very much to all who replied /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. This is a very cool forum in that I had the problem around noon, made the post, and had 3-4 expert replies within a couple of hours. So now my curiosity has been aroused about the origin of the word, or non word, zirc, or zirk, or maybe zerk /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif. Can't find it in Webster. Also where can I buy these things, and please don't say my dealer 'cause they are 50 miles away. Thanks again to all you good people

 

[gordon]

Re: Great answers; What the heck are these anyway?

The correct spelling is zerk---I was curious looked in the dictionary your right it's not there. Looked in my Northern Hydraulic book and there it was---zerk---. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
As to it's true meaning or origin I have no idea!!!!!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Gordon

 

[Von]

Re: Great answers; What the heck are these anyway?

You can find these at any good automotive store in both SAE and metric. Buy extra, you can always use them.

Von

 

[Bird]

Re: Great answers; What the heck are these anyway?

Yep, Gordon, they were "zerks" when I was a teenager working in Dad's service station and auto parts store (and it ain't in my dictionary either). And like Von said, you can get them at any auto parts store, Tractor Supply, Northern Tool, and I believe even at Wal-mart and K-Mart. And there are both SAE and metric (and I had a box of each until my dog knocked them off the shelf, so now I have one box of mixed - makes it more interesting and time consuming to find the right one /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif). And unfortunately, some pieces of equipment have pressed in zerks instead of threaded.

Bird