CLEANING ZERKS

[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