CK20 front axle pivot greesing problems

[Slackdaddy]

The zerks for the front axle pivot (CK20HST) were not taking grease.
I pulled each zerk and they pass grease.
I loaded a grease gun with penetrating oil, the rear pivot zerk would take the oil,, but I never saw it drip out of anywhere??
The front would not really take much at all, and once again it never seeped out of anywhere?

I then used the grease gun (with grease), the rear pivot zerk took grease,, but it never oozed out anywhere,, where is the grease going???

The front pivot would not really take any grease.

Questions:
Where is the grease going when pumped in the rear pivot?

How do you remove the front pivot block to clean/grease? weight on wheels? wheels/axle suspended? I dont want to snap the rear pivot when I remove the front.

Thanks,
Slack

 

[Slackdaddy]

I did lift the axle off the ground (with the FEL), and move it up and down while attempting to grease.,, no luck

 

[Peter 315]

The kubota tractors have two fittings and a vent plug you take out to grease the pivot ...... I think it might go into the front axle ...

 

[jabelding]

I would remove the front zerk and dig around in the hole on the axle with a pick to get some of the old pack dried grease out. Then try it again with the light oil while rocking the front axle back and forth with it off the ground. Once you do that use it a couple of days then try hitting it with grease again. If not buy a grease zerk cleaner it will loosen up anything in the way. Roughneck Grease Fitting Unblocker | Northern Tool

 

[cholland]

I have found the front zerk on my CK3510 doesn't always want to take grease. Seems to do better when parked exactly level for some reason.

 

[radios1]

maybe the pivot hasn't been greased in so long, the grease has hardened?. I ran into that before, a heat gun should fix that.. just warm it up a bit..

 

[xcgreene]

You can see here in this diagram of the front axle, that once the front axle fwd and aft pivot point bearing housings are full, there is no where for the grease to go.



For the front pivot, slowly over time, the grease will leak passed the seal, to the exterior of the housing. If you wish to flush this housing, you can remove the tension bolt and pump grease to push the old out.


The aft housing, slowly over time, the grease will leak passed the seal, to the exterior of its housing as well, and sometimes a bit makes it into the driveshaft protection tube.


Heating up the housing will just thin out the grease, allowing it to flow past the seals more quickly, and depending on how much you heat it up, and the grease type, could cause the oils to fall out of the grease suspension, making it worse. I would not recommend heating up the housings. Though if you are just using a heat gun, you certainly didn't hurt anything.

If you know the grease zerks are not clogged, and you still cannot pump grease, the cavity is simply full. Wait 50 hours of operation or so, and you will find these two zerks will take a pump or two again.