CLEANING ZERKS

[flINTLOCK]

My used tractor has much accumulated "crud" around the zerks. Is there a safe solvent for such stuff. I'd like to think creating piles of dirty, greasy towels may not be the answer, although I've done that before!!

 

[1bush2hog]

Just wipe them off with a rag and pump them full of new grease - You will most likely always find a greasy spot on a tractor

 

[mjarrels]

Northern Tool also sells a small handheld zerk cleaning tool... Cheap model and expensive model in a oak case.

mark

 

[normde2001]

My used tractor has much accumulated "crud" around the zerks. Is there a safe solvent for such stuff. I'd like to think creating piles of dirty, greasy towels may not be the answer, although I've done that before!!

You can clean every zerk in the county with 1 shop rag.

 

[Bird]

Northern Tool also sells a small handheld zerk cleaning tool... Cheap model and expensive model in a oak case.

mark

Mark, I'll have to admit to never having heard of such a tool. But I think the original poster in this thread was talking about cleaning off the outside of the zerks while Nothern Tool's tools are for cleaning the inside; i.e., unstopping stopped up zerks so they'll take grease again. Like the other guys, I've always just wiped them off with a shop rag, or even a paper towel. Of course, there have been times when I washed, or pressure washed, grease fittings when I was washing more of the vehicle or equipment the zerks were in, and was then going to grease all the zerks.

 

[ToadHill]

Spray cans of brake cleaner will wash it off, if you want something less costly, a good old kerosene soak with air pressure to blow it off after the soak.

 

[Bob_Young]

What about cleanup around the joint itself? I usually pump grease in until I see some sign of grease being forced out of the joint. Sometimes that just takes one stroke....other times 4 or 5. Sometimes I watch the wrong place and a lot of grease is forced out without my knowledge.

Point is, that it takes time to wipe the accumulated ooze out of tight places and it often uses up much Windex and many rags or paper towels. Blowing it away with a pressure washer risks forcing water into the joint. Yet without doing one or the other the machine starts looking like a mess.

How do you neat freaks keep your tractors looking so good? Forget about greasing and trade often? That seems to be what one CUT owner I know is doing.
Bob

 

[flINTLOCK]

So brake cleaner should be OK?? I've got several cans of that around.

 

[Bird]

So brake cleaner should be OK?? I've got several cans of that around.

I think you want to be careful about getting brake cleaner on painted surfaces, don't you?

 

[workinallthetime]

brake cleaner will only take off the wax, other than that its ok to use. brake fluid will take off the paint

 

[JerryG]

Use a power washer on it or take it to the car wash. Then when you get home, treat it to a good grease job. Put enough in to force the water out of the joints and everything will be clean and greased.

 

[DrainPondDesign]

For what this is worth I purchased colored plastic grease fitting caps from Mc Master-Carr Supply Co for about $10 per hundred in the hope that they will keep grit from getting pumped into a bearing. They come with long or short keeper straps & are available in several colors which helps me find them so I don't miss any.

 

[Houndsman]

Drainpond,
how are those caps working for you? I'm more concerned about fine dust/dirt working its way into the zerk, sounds like the caps could be an option for me. Maybe work on a few other zerks I've got in the bay (Tail pintle for brush cutter, ball joints, etc)
v/r mark

 

[Highbeam]

I am an overgreaser. I pump in until I see grease oozing out of the joint like Bob Young describes before each day of work. Lots of excess but grease is cheap. It's messy. Every several months I will go through with an open paper towel in one hand and my other hand scooping grease out from the joint as best I can to remove excess squished out grease. Then I close the towel and throw it in the trash (or burn it, great fun). Then I get another few paper towels and moisten with diesel fuel as needed to dissolve the leftover grease and wipe it all up. It leaves a nice glossy surface and cleans the grease right up. Follow with a nice washing and everything tooks good. For the recessed areas right around the zercs I will twirl a screwdriver and scoop out the junk if there is so much that it prevents the grease gun from going all the way onto the zerc.

There are many folks on this site who's tractors look like they are brand new. Even the bucket paint is flawless. I don't know what they do with their tractors but it must not be the same thing that I do.

 

[DrainPondDesign]

Houndsman,

The caps work OK at keeping the tip of the zerk clean but take beating on things like a snowblower auger where material impacts them. In any event I figure that they are better than nothing & I use the contrasting color to help me spot the fittings so I don't forget any. Could be a negative if one is carried away & I am just looking for the color.

 

[skipmarcy]

I agree with you, Highbeam. I grease mine the start of any workday and of course I have nasty grease at all points, especially the loader pins. Yes, the surface of the grease is a magnet to debris but the gob is actually a little bit of a seal too, keeping large amounts of water or debris from reaching the actual pressure points of the components. I'll pressure wash mine maybe 4 times or so a year real good and immediately grease all to shove the water out. For daily lubing I just use a shop rag to wipe the zerk real quick. I'm like you - if anyone really used their tractor like I do, it would look like mine. If all it took was a quick washing and a little touch-up paint on a scratch here & there, mine would still look new too but I'm usually pretty darn tired when I come out of the seat after a days' work and don't have the time to beautify my machine that often. Mine stayed pretty most of the first year I had it but as I found more & more work to do with it, beauty when down the tubes pretty quick. Maybe one of these winters I'll spiffy her up with a new coat of paint.

 

[chrisjbell]

Zerks are easiest to clean when you take them off. An ice pick works pretty well if you don't want to pull 'em off. They're pretty cheap, too, so when they get that special bit of crud in them that doesn't want to come out it is easy enough to pop a new one in.

I also am from the school of overgreasing. It does tend to get grease in the area around the areas where the grease squeezes out of the fittings, and that attracts dirt but I find that when there's enough dirt in the grease that it falls right off . Pressure washing works pretty well, and I don't worry about getting water in the joints - if they are well greased there won't be any rusting, after all.

 

[pat32rf]

I find that I can get a good idea of how much grease a zerk should need by looking at the movement of the joint, especialy on the FEL and hoe. Some move thru 180 deg every cycle, others move thru 20deg. The closer to the buckets, the more movement seems to hold true. Some of the zerks on the cylinders only move a touch so they will just need a touch of grease, or maybe every few days, instead of daily....I found two fittings UNDER the hoe that I have never greased( you can't get at them when the hoe is on) but they were still OK since they are two of the 10degree, and then only sometimes ones