I hate my grease gun right now

[Soundguy]

i've yet to ever find a grease or oil price at a dealer that was better than a bulk supplier or box store. sorry.. i don't see nh selling grease for 1.50$ a tube. wally basic is 1.64 and I think the molly is 1.84 or something like that. then there is another for 2.12.. etc.

to get under 1.64 for the oz. in a tube. you'd have to buy bulk pack in tubs and load yer gun with a spatula.. or use a grease pump setup with a 5 or 35g keg..

soundguy

 

[JDgreen227]

Wish I had seen this thread sooner....the other day my neighbor asked to borrow a grease gun and he had never used one before...I made SURE he knew how to load a new cartridge properly both by demonstrating the method PLUS writing it down...

And I also showed him how to use a 1/4" bolt to be SURE the d*** T-handle plunger you pull down did not slip put of the slot when he was putting in the grease tube. If I had a dollar for every time those things had popped out at the wrong time...

 

[JDgreen227]

To purge air an easy method is to unscrew the pump end a turn or two,then pump til grease comes out,then tighten pump end.

My greaseguns that use the large tubes all have a setscrew at the top you can loosen to purge air.

 

[joshuabardwell]

My greaseguns that use the large tubes all have a setscrew at the top you can loosen to purge air.

Mine takes the 14 oz tubes. It has a plunger that you press in to release air.

 

[pacerron]

i've yet to ever find a grease or oil price at a dealer that was better than a bulk supplier or box store. sorry.. i don't see nh selling grease for 1.50$ a tube. wally basic is 1.64 and I think the molly is 1.84 or something like that. then there is another for 2.12.. etc.

to get under 1.64 for the oz. in a tube. you'd have to buy bulk pack in tubs and load yer gun with a spatula.. or use a grease pump setup with a 5 or 35g keg..

soundguy

Soundguy,

I was referring to the statement:
I have been using the Ambra New Holland grease on my new Kioti because the dealer brought out some for a gift.. I am thinking it is high dollar grease. When it is used up, I am thinking of finding a cheaper grease with moly.. I will investigate the Wallmart Molly grease

James K0UA

On a strait retail price comparison to someone who doesn't really have a dealer whom they have purchased new equipment from recently, the price would be significantly different than Walmart grease for tubes.
But remember James's dealer voluntarily gave him a case because of his recent tractor purchase. He didn't do it out of the kindness of his heart and it really wasn't free. It was a good practice to get James to return for more attachments in the future. Most dealers rely on repeat business and good word of mouth advertising to stay in business for any length of time. A good dealer recognizes your face, shakes your hand, and calls you by name when you walk in the door.
On a new purchase, under warranty, it is a very good idea to buy the motor oil, hydraulic oil, special brake fluid, etc. from the dealer, even when doing the maintenance yourself. New Holland even wants a signature of the dealer that the first oil change and check up was done. If you don't buy the lubricants from your dealer, good luck on getting him to sign that you have done the stuff at the first interval.
If you try to save a few bucks on lubricants up front by buying cheapo
stuff, you could be in for an expensive surprise, under warranty, if you blow a turbo or have another repair that can be related to using non approved products.
Furthermore, I only encouraged him to call and find out what his dealer would do for him. The dealing is between the two of them; nobody else in another location without the same circumstances has any idea what will or will not transpire.
Ron

 

[JDgreen227]

Just wanted to note that I have one 30 year old large cartridge grease gun and the slot where you lock the spring loaded T-handle after pulling it down to load/remove the grease cartridge has a REAL detent to keep the T-handle from releasing. Both of my newer ones have detents that are a joke, you have to jam a phillips driver shaft or 1/4" bolt into the bottom to keep the T-handle from popping out of the detent. Wonder how much money they saved by skimping in the material for that area?

 

[pacerron]

Both of my newer ones have detents that are a joke, you have to jam a phillips driver shaft or 1/4" bolt into the bottom to keep the T-handle from popping out of the detent. Wonder how much money they saved by skimping in the material for that area?

Not surprised. I got one recently at your favorite store
The nozzle on the end that clamps around the zerk has no tightness adjustment like the old 2 piece ones had.

I was greasing a NH FEL last night and the zerks are recessed under little plastic door dust covers. The new nozzle took quite a push to get it over the zerks.
So, wiggling and pulling to get the darn thing off I broke one of the 24 zerks
on the loader frame.
Getting the piece out of the loader wasn't bad but getting a new one in was a 20 minute job instead of 1 minute. No finger room to start it, so a very thin 11mm socket with paper towel stuffed inside to keep the zerk threads out of the socket did it. Getting the broken ball out of the gun nozzle was a vice, drill, ice pick cussing job to boot.
Higher prices sure don't indicate any quality.

 

[CharlieS]

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?

the easiest way to check how much grease is left in a gun is pull the plunger rod out and turn it so it catch's on the plunger itself.
the reason a gun gets spongy and won't pump grease usually is an air bubble in the tube itself.
pull the plunger rod out and turn a quarter turn to lock it in the plunger, just like checking quantity left in the gun, next, unscrew the head of the gun half to a full turn, allowing a vent to let the bubble escape, then put pressure on the rod by pressing it on a solid object while pumping the gun lever, you will probably hear a little hiss as the vented air bubble escapes.
When the bubble has released there will usually be a squirt of grease out of the gun nozzle. tighten the head back up on the cylinder and you should be good to go.
Speaking for myself, when i run into this problem, i usually hold the end of the extended rod against my hip and pull the gun into the rod to force out the air bubble.
Doing as stated above has worked for me for 40+ years.

 

[Soundguy]

Not sure what that has to do at all with my post.

I stated that dealer grease was very likely more expensive than non dealer grease. nothing more.. nothing less.

as to having to use oem lubes during warranty? I'd for sure use lubes that met oem specs.. ut as for the name brand.. might read the Magnuson-Moss act .

I heavilly question your use of the word cheapo and it's implications. You seem to define any lube that is cheaper than the oem lube as being inferior due to lower cost.

realize this. tractor companies don't make oil.. they buy it from a disrtribuitor who slaps whatever name and label on it the dealer wants. there are a finite number of distribuitors and refiners.. chooseing a lube that meets all oem specs, at a much lower cost than oem is NOT difficult at all.

for items that you cannot find a 'for spec' equivalent.. I'd agree.. use oem recs. in many cases, filters fall into this. I have a few new holland tractors that have air and hyd and fuel filters that I have not found a 'for spec' repalcement for.. thus oem is the way to go. even oil filters. while i have found crosses, i have not found a 'for spec' exact cross.. thus on the more expensive machines, i generally use an oem filter.

I use your mentioned 'cheapo' lube in soe pretty expensive diesel tractors. myh 7610s had to go in for a hyd remote pack repair (was a physical defect in a pilot, not lube related at all.. actually was a manufacturing defect.. but found outside of warranty ).. in any case.. for that machiens life since i had it.. it ran your 'cheapo' oil. whent he hyds were repaired i asked the mechanic to go ahead and check out the system.. replace some orings 'just because' and to look around.. pressure test pump and relief, and see what my 35$ per pail oil was doing to the machine vs their 80$ pail of oil. machine came back 100% within spec.. orings fine.. but repalced. same with seals and wet media.. no pump issues. cheapo oil fine as it met specs.

price does not denote quality.

specs are what matters.

soundguy

Soundguy,

On a strait retail price comparison to someone who doesn't really have a dealer whom they have purchased new equipment from recently, the price would be significantly different than Walmart grease for tubes.
But remember James's dealer voluntarily gave him a case because of his recent tractor purchase. He didn't do it out of the kindness of his heart and it really wasn't free. It was a good practice to get James to return for more attachments in the future. Most dealers rely on repeat business and good word of mouth advertising to stay in business for any length of time. A good dealer recognizes your face, shakes your hand, and calls you by name when you walk in the door.
On a new purchase, under warranty, it is a very good idea to buy the motor oil, hydraulic oil, special brake fluid, etc. from the dealer, even when doing the maintenance yourself. New Holland even wants a signature of the dealer that the first oil change and check up was done. If you don't buy the lubricants from your dealer, good luck on getting him to sign that you have done the stuff at the first interval.
If you try to save a few bucks on lubricants up front by buying cheapo
stuff, you could be in for an expensive surprise, under warranty, if you blow a turbo or have another repair that can be related to using non approved products.
Furthermore, I only encouraged him to call and find out what his dealer would do for him. The dealing is between the two of them; nobody else in another location without the same circumstances has any idea what will or will not transpire.
Ron

 

[LandGuy]

I've never had much trouble reloading a grease gun . . . but man are grease guns greasy! They all leak, and leak badly. (I used to think it was because of something I was doing wrong!) A simple solution is to wrap it in several plastic grocery bags, one inside the other inside the other, etc., with just the hose sticking out. As the outside bag gets greasy from greasing operations, discard it. The innermost bag will hold most of the leaked grease.