Broke grease fitting on bucket..what do I do?

[ampsucker]

fwiw, all grease zerks are not created equally. literally.

there are at least two standard sizes most commonly used for the regular size grease guns - metric and ASE. the metric takes a 7mm wrench. compared side by side, they have different flares and slightly different diameters. depending on the type of gun tip you have, you can have significant trouble getting a good seal with the wrong zerk. i'm not sure, but i also suspect you can get different grades of hardness which may affect how often you have to replace.

on my bx, the metric tip on my gun works the best.

amp

 

[davitk]

fwiw, all grease zerks are not created equally. literally.

there are at least two standard sizes most commonly used for the regular size grease guns - metric and ASE. the metric takes a 7mm wrench. compared side by side, they have different flares and slightly different diameters. depending on the type of gun tip you have, you can have significant trouble getting a good seal with the wrong zerk. i'm not sure, but i also suspect you can get different grades of hardness which may affect how often you have to replace.

on my bx, the metric tip on my gun works the best.

amp

I take it the zerk on the right is metric, and the steep shoulders are the reason it is such a PITA to remove the gun?

 

[ampsucker]

i knew i should have labled those when i took that pic!

actually, going from memory, i think the one on the right is ASE, left is metric.

fwiw, my metric gun nozzle has hash marks all around it like a metric socket. it works best on both my toyota tundra and also the kubota. seems also to work fine with the john deere/scotts lawn mower. some equipment i have seems to work best with the other nozzle, but i can never get a good fit on the metric stuff.

not sure if this is a good rule of thumb, but i would think if it takes metric wrenches to work on it, it probably takes a metric zerk.

amp

 

[Northland]

I feel better now that I know I am not that stupid; too many variations.

The 3/8" ones I bought last week don't even have the hex head-they are perfectly round and smooth. I wonder how you get them in?

I am going to buy the grease fitting tool Diesel Power listed

 

[Jim Nelson]

One thing I noticed when I broke my first one Was that it and most of the rest were loose,same thing with the BH-75 and Jinma chipper,after tightening them no more problems.
Good luck.
Jim

 

[ampsucker]

northland: vise grips??? i don't really know. i've run into that before and just went back and got the hex head ones. even then, they are hard to get in straight. my new mower deck came from kubota with one in so crooked that grease shoots out around the threads instead of going inside where it's supposed to. i'll be letting the dealer handle that under warranty ;-)

little things like grease zerks can be very irritating. once the threads are stripped, you'll have a hassle getting anything to stay in there. every time you put grease to it under pressure, the zerk will want to pop out. that's why it's so important to get the right threads and size zerk and "carefully" thread it in. otherwise, you'll be drilling and tapping and then possibly dealing with metal shavings in your grease spaces. ahh, the trouble that can come from a 1$ part. i had a small hydro fluid leak on the new bx. dealer fixed under warranty. $3 vent tube, $300 in labor....

amp

 

[davitk]

Here's a pic of one of my Kubota's loader zerks, certainly would assume it to be metric. The defined "waist" on the metric vs. the hour glass shape of the ASE would certainly lend itself to not releasing the gun tip.







(clikable thumbnails)

 

[canoetrpr]

The 3/8" ones I bought last week don't even have the hex head-they are perfectly round and smooth. I wonder how you get them in?

Funny, I almost picked up the 1/4" ones that are like this. Finally realised that they did not have a hex head. Decided to purchase a box instead of assorted grease jerks for 22 bucks. It sure as heck isn't metric though and have not found a box of metric ones yet I don't think.

-Aamer

 

[bx24]

As a side note, you can find smaller bottles of cutting oil @ the big box stores (Lowes, HD and Menards) in the plumbing isle (to cut pipe threads)

 

[Northland]

Funny, I almost picked up the 1/4" ones that are like this. Finally realised that they did not have a hex head. Decided to purchase a box instead of assorted grease jerks for 22 bucks. It sure as heck isn't metric though and have not found a box of metric ones yet I don't think.

-Aamer

When I returned those fittings to my local TSC store I found out by looking at all the packaging that they were "driving" fittings (?). The local store manager told me that one side was square so you could hold it firmly and place it in the thread. I said "oh yeah-please show me" which of course he couldn't because it was fully circular.

I so @#$%^ hate it when people in stores make things up; particularly when it is apparent that they know less then me-which often isn't much.