Greasing unsealed pins

[3v0]

Harbor freight has an air powered grease gun that works well for me. There is not much to them. It is under $20.

 

[cgraham]

Thank you for all the great suggestions and wealth of wisdom! The pneumatic grease gun is a great idea - thanks for the link 3v0.

I replaced several troublesome zerks yesterday, and got grease into every point except one.

Greasing is like brushing your teeth.

I KNEW someone would make a reference to flossing!

I guess I will have to resign myself to getting out out the tractor every 4 months and greasing, 10 hours on the tractor or not :grumpy: Pulling the pins - oh well, I asked for advice, so I had better take it: but it's going to be like pulling teeth!

I have one PROBLEM remaining: I cannot get grease into the lower (vertical) boom swivel pin. The two vertical pins lock two plates on the boom assembly to a tongue welded to the tractor mainframe. The zerk is in a well in the upper end of the pin These pins have been difficult since new, but I always succeeded eventually. Not this time: evidently the grease channel through the pin is blocked. After trying all the usual boom-loading tricks, I removed the zerk and filled the well with BP-Blaster to flush the grease channel that goes through the pin. No luck: evidently it is thoroughly blocked. Tomorrow I will be pulling the pin.

"THIS THREAD IS AN EXAMPLE OF EXCELLENT ADVISE AVAILABLE ON T-B-N." I'll second that!! :cool2: :thumbsup:

Thanks again TBN!

C

 

[gwdixon]

Have you tried to pump grease through the problem Zerk with it out of the tractor? Grease should stream through it. Sometimes that will clear it. A replacement Zerk could be bad.

If you are still using a hand grease gun you might want to try a different nozzle on it. Rarely will grease "back up" and refuse to go in a Zerk with a new nozzle. Force can really be put on it without leaking.

As a last resort, try holding the nozzle as tight as you can on the Zerk. Every once in a while that provides a better seal and the grease will go in.

I've never taken a pin out over 30 years of tractoring and one of the tractors was ancient (AC WD40). It should not be necessary. Keep trying to force grease into the recalcitrant pin. Make sure it doesn't have a load on it - or at least have a load that forces the pin away from the Zerk hole to give it some space.

As a last, LAST resort you can heat up the pin with a propane torch to loosen any stiff grease. Be sure to have a fire extinguisher handy. Grease burns quite well. Then heat up the Zerk area and start pumping grease.

If all this doesn't work then just sell the tractor and let someone else deal with it! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

[Mace Canute]

........Lastly, use a top quality grease. I use C&C 880 ($$$) but Lucas makes a good grease, too. It is sticky and doesn't ooze out so much under use. It only takes a couple of pumps to re-grease..........

This is a more important point that most people think. A lot of problems, such as "congealed" grease in a pin or a grease gun being a PITA, suddenly disappear when you switch from a bargain bin grease to a quality brand.

 

[Turbys_1700]

We always greased the baler before use and every morning before baling...
Same thing with our old Gleaner combines...
With that said, the operators manual for my Woods PRD 7200 finish mower calls for grease every 25 hours of use...
I do it more than that...
About every other mowing which is around 6 hours...
My FEL on my tractor is greased around once a month...
That is too much but I know that is is in good shape...
Grease is cheap, even the expensive type...
Much cheaper than bearings or bushings...
Knock on wood...
In 22 years of mowing with my rear finish mowers I have never replaced a bearing...
It it ain't broke don't fix it...