I hate my grease gun right now

[joshuabardwell]

With 10 hours on my new tractor, I'm going through a basic maintenance once-over. I figured I'd hit all the grease points just to be thorough. This is my first experience with a grease gun, and I think I have figured out all of the wrong ways to reload it.

Wrong way #1: Mis-read the instructions and remove the base, then insert the cylinder, then try to push the plunger back in with a cylinder full of grease in the way.

Wrong way #2: Correctly remove the head before reloading, but forget to pull the plunger back, so that as soon as you remove the head, the plunger pushes the last leftover bit of grease in the gun out onto the ground.

I am running into a problem that is probably user error, but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. As the gun starts to empty out, it won't push grease anymore. The handle gets spongy. So I open the gun up to put another cylinder in, but the problem is there's still enough grease in there left over from the last cylinder that the new cylinder won't go all the way in. So, clearly the gun wasn't empty. I have tried pressing the air release nozzle and pumping the handle to get the air out, and I have tried ... tapping it on something upside down to try to work the rest of the grease down towards the head. What should I be doing differently?

Thanks.

Now I'm going to go wash all this grease off me. Sheesh.

 

[moored4]

You might take a look at these! There are others out there but this was what I could find quickly! Yes I have been there one time before myself! The School of the hard way!


How to Load a Grease Gun: 20 steps - wikiHow

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxX9rS8NFyk]Ultimate Grease Gun Demonstration - etrailer.com - YouTube[/ame]

 

[MasseyWV]

This is my first experience with a grease gun

Seriously? I'm not making fun of you, it just never occurred to me that someone may have never used a grease gun before. The video and link shared by the other poster should give you a good start with grease guns 101.

 

[k0ua]

Joshua you might want to read this thread also. Yes it is long, but you will enjoy it:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/203295-grease-gun-screwdriver.html

James K0UA

 

[joshuabardwell]

Seriously? I'm not making fun of you, it just never occurred to me that someone may have never used a grease gun before. The video and link shared by the other poster should give you a good start with grease guns 101.

Seriously, and no offense taken. I always got my oil changed at the mechanic, and never really had any other machinery that didn't have sealed bearings. Now that I've got a tractor, a grease gun is mandatory.

 

[Carl_NH]

Joshua,

Its like reloading a gun, when empty pull the piston (the thing at the end of the barrel) all the way back and there is a slot in the shaft that you lock into the end of the grease gun.

Remove/unscrew the top (grease pump part) and then you will see the tube, remove the empty tube, insert the new tube (paper end down metal end top). Then screw on the top of the grease gun, tighten and then release the piston.

Pump a few times (into a paper towel or can) until grease comes out then grease away.

Carl

 

[whistlepig]

Seriously, and no offense taken. I always got my oil changed at the mechanic, and never really had any other machinery that didn't have sealed bearings. Now that I've got a tractor, a grease gun is mandatory.

I went through the same thing when I got my first grease gun. That was a long time ago.

 

[Soundguy]

yep.. and some air lock worse than others.. and some have worse spring retension.. and some, the plunger design lets grease get behind it so when you jack the plunger back, some extrudes out on ya.

all are a lil different. like women...

 

[MasseyWV]

all are a lil different. like women...

Except that grease guns are cheaper and much more forgiving. :laughing:

 

[cb781]

I did the same thing the first time i reloaded mine. After i got the new tube in i backed the bleeder screw all the way out and lost most of the new tube before i got it back in. It was a great learning experiance because i figured everything not to do when reloading a gease gun