Best way to remove a broken zerk

[Gary Fowler]

I use the left hand twist stem easy-out but you do have to be careful and not put too much torque on them. You sure don't want to break off an easy-out because of the hardness, they don't drill out easily. Be especially careful when using the small ones like you would need on a Zerk but the good news is that mostly they are easy to remove due to the tapered thread on them

 

[LD1]

Another vote for the easy-outs

 

[pmsmechanic]

Are you sure it's a screw in zerk? A lot of newer equipment just has push in ones. You need to drill those out and thread the hole for a screw in zerk.

 

[TractorGuy]

For small diameter stuff like this a concrete nail is hard to beat. They are very hard steel. Tap it in and put an adjustable wrench on it. For larger stuff I have ground a tapered square on any kind of steel rod that is close in size and used an adjustable wrench or vise grips on it depending on the shape of the top portion.

 

[beowulf]

I got the EZ Out tool, but I quickly figured out that due to severely restricted access to that particular zerk I was not going to be able to get it to work. But I tried a number of ways to get it out - I was as innovative as I knew how to be given the access issue. Finally, I just took the FEL apart at that location, put the part in a vice, used a drill bit that I determined was slightly smaller than the diameter of the threaded end of the zerk and drilled straight down. The zerk popped down and out, and the threads were apparently not damaged that much as I was able to thread a new zerk in. It took a lot longer - a couple of hours of trying various ways to get it done, but then again, I learned a bit more about taking a certain part of the tractor apart. All greased up now.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Congrats on getting it all taken care of