Cleaning around your zerks and grease areas?

Dingeryote · May 5, 2015

Old T-shirt to wipe the mud and gunk off the Zerk, and that's it.

The pressure washer gets the stuff pushed out, before the next greasing anyway.

kubotacres · May 5, 2015

Coyote machine said:
Cool. Does the size cap you linked to fit all your zerks, or do you have to use different caps on various equipment?

You're supposed to grease a tractor? Who knew? Don't they come with factory grease, for life?!

Yes they fit all the zerks. They have different colors but I normally use yellow so they are easy to find on some of my equipment. You can find them cheaper probably on eBay or amazon. They do a great job of keeping dirt and water out.

PILOON · May 5, 2015

kubotacres said:
Yes they fit all the zerks. They have different colors but I normally use yellow so they are easy to find on some of my equipment. You can find them cheaper probably on eBay or amazon. They do a great job of keeping dirt and water out.

Judging by the amount of pressure needed to get grease into a zerk I doubt that any water could enter. As to dirt a simple rag cleans that nipple. They do look pretty however.

davesl708 · May 5, 2015

I wipe mine before and after greasing. If not I will be wearing. Paper towels, rags, shop cloths, what every is handy.
When the build up of squeeze out gets to much on the FEL I power wash it and start over otherwise it will end up on the shop floor.

kubotacres · May 5, 2015

PILOON said:
Judging by the amount of pressure needed to get grease into a zerk I doubt that any water could enter. As to dirt a simple rag cleans that nipple. They do look pretty however.

Its not just the simple cleaning that pushes dirt inside the zerk that ruins it.Many hours of exposure to water,dirt, mud or whatever may be the case is what ruins them. I never have to wipe away dirt because it's not there, only the grease after the initial greasing. The zerks on my row hippers and disk I pull behind my tractor is still shiny new after being pulled hours upon hours in my garden.

RedNeckGeek · May 5, 2015

kubotacres said:
Its not just the simple cleaning that pushes dirt inside the zerk that ruins it.Many hours of exposure to water,dirt, mud or whatever may be the case is what ruins them. I never have to wipe away dirt because it's not there, only the grease after the initial greasing. The zerks on my row hippers and disk I pull behind my tractor is still shiny new after being pulled hours upon hours in my garden.

I work in a dusty environment in the summer, muddy in winter. The zerk fittings are always covered with dust or mud on my tractor, and always need wiping before greasing.

kubotacres · May 5, 2015

RedNeckGeek said:
I work in a dusty environment in the summer, muddy in winter. The zerk fittings are always covered with dust or mud on my tractor, and always need wiping before greasing.

That's the reason I installed the caps... One less thing to fool with.

RedNeckGeek · May 5, 2015

If I used the caps, they'd end up covered in mud or dust, and I'd still have to wipe them off before I removed them, and probably again before they went back on. So it's just a matter of what you want to wipe off, I guess. At least this way I don't have to worry about dropping the cap, stepping on it in the dirt or losing it in the grass, and end up just leaving the zerk uncovered after all. :confused2:

Sodo · May 6, 2015

Depends on the joint. So many joints are wide open to the elements that a cap on a zerk is absolutely pointless. Whats its purpose and whats the effect? I would consider it if the zerk serviced a precision unit like a sealed roller bearing. Maybe....

More likely I would not consider it. The more I think about it the less likely I am to add that extra step that gains nothing.

One thing I'll agree to is it lets folks know the zerks are taken seriously and the eqpt is probably well-maintained. In my experience the only zerk problems occur when you're not using them often enough (ir not paying attn).

kubotacres · May 6, 2015

Sodo said:
Depends on the joint. So many joints are wide open to the elements that a cap on a zerk is absolutely pointless. Whats its purpose and whats the effect? I would consider it if the zerk serviced a precision unit like a sealed roller bearing. Maybe....

More likely I would not consider it. The more I think about it the less likely I am to add that extra step that gains nothing.

One thing I'll agree to is it lets folks know the zerks are taken seriously and the eqpt is probably well-maintained. In my experience the only zerk problems occur when you're not using them often enough (ir not paying attn).

I guess I'm just a little more particular with my equipment but they do serve a purpose..I like them so thats all that matters.Hopefully the original poster has received the information he was looking for.

pinetree10 · May 6, 2015

Sodo said:
Underwear doesn't seem to make it out to the shop. If I take it off dirty it goes into one of two places:

1) in the wash
or
2) in the trash

If it goes in the trash, it's gone of course. If it gets clean, I generally run it one more time while intending to throw it away that evening. Which doesn't seem to happen. It goes into the wash again, round and round until my wife performs an intervention.

its the wife's fault my tractor is greasy.

It's funny because it's true.

Jay4200 · May 7, 2015

dragoneggs said:
What do you folks do to keep the tractor clean around your zerks and squeeze out areas? I see a lot of pics of either barely used tractors or very **** caring of tractors. For those of you who do spend a little time detailing, curious to know your methods.

I generally wipe those areas clean inadvertently - seems I can't even walk past my barn without getting a glop of grease on my clothes. I hate that. Actually, I do often scrape out the packed in grease - usually use a couple of paper towels to dig out the big stuff, but I don't really try to make it look too spiffy. I think the typical big glob of goo around helps keep dirt from working in the pin/bushing area.

Wagtail · May 7, 2015

Jay4200 said:
I generally wipe those areas clean inadvertently - seems I can't even walk past my barn without getting a glop of grease on my clothes. I hate that.

OOooooh! That's so true. I can't even look at my tractor without a black grease smear spontaneously appearing on my trousers.

There might be a government research grant in there somewhere!

dragoneggs · May 8, 2015

Wagtail said:
OOooooh! That's so true. I can't even look at my tractor without a black grease smear spontaneously appearing on my trousers.

There might be a government research grant in there somewhere!

Ughh... don't tell me stupid government grants are prevalent down under too?

Wagtail · May 8, 2015

dragoneggs said:
Ughh... don't tell me stupid government grants are prevalent down under too?

I just checked Mate and, yeah, they do... Science & Technology. Plus we can't forget "Biodiversity & Climate Change". I should put in for one regarding the latter as I'm sure I could stick my head out the front door and record that the climate is different from the day before.

I remember (back in '95, on a Navy Base in Victoria, B.C.) watching university students recording how much Canada Geese crap every hour, over an 8hr period, for a week! Government (public) grant money being well spent, I guess.

Jay4200 · May 8, 2015

Wagtail said:
I just checked Mate and, yeah, they do... Science & Technology. Plus we can't forget "Biodiversity & Climate Change". I should put in for one regarding the latter as I'm sure I could stick my head out the front door and record that the climate is different from the day before.

I remember (back in '95, on a Navy Base in Victoria, B.C.) watching university students recording how much Canada Geese crap every hour, over an 8hr period, for a week! Government (public) grant money being well spent, I guess.

I'm thinking it's ripe for an alternative energy source. Spontaneous creation of petroleum products. I simply walk into a room and *poof*, I'm covered with grease that appears to materialize out of nowhere. Amazing!

ru499 · May 15, 2015

I bought this grease gun end from Amazon. Wish I got it 40 years ago.

LockNLube Grease Gun Coupler - Zerk Grease Coupler Fitting Tip - Easy Lock-on, Clip-off - Stays on - Grease goes in, not on the machine https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H7LPKKU/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_B6Jvvb17T53CJ

dragoneggs · May 15, 2015

ru499 said:
I bought this grease gun end from Amazon. Wish I got it 40 years ago.

LockNLube Grease Gun Coupler - Zerk Grease Coupler Fitting Tip - Easy Lock-on, Clip-off - Stays on - Grease goes in, not on the machine https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H7LPKKU/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_B6Jvvb17T53CJ

Yes, many here on TBN have purchased this and it's pretty much unanimous it is just about the best little tool for zerking! There are a few threads dedicated to the LockNLube fitting.

KBinCT · May 15, 2015

ru499 said:
I bought this grease gun end from Amazon. Wish I got it 40 years ago.

LockNLube Grease Gun Coupler - Zerk Grease Coupler Fitting Tip - Easy Lock-on, Clip-off - Stays on - Grease goes in, not on the machine https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H7LPKKU/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_B6Jvvb17T53CJ

I just bought one of these also. It works great and makes greasing equipment super easy. No more fighting with the grease gun trying to get it off of a zerk fitting..