Grease Gun for Thor

webbmeister · Aug 11, 2002

Well, after reading Mike's thread on grease guns, and being overdue at 40 hours to grease Thor (he got lubed at 25 when he went in for warranty work though) I went out to buy a grease gun. I found a nice lincoln pistol-grip at Auto Zone, but the flex hose was missing from the box. Caught that at the store, and asked for another, and they were out. So, already of a mind to get this chore done today, I went to Home Depot and bought one of their cheapie specials so I wouldn't feel bad about retiring it or relegating it to "second gun" when Auto Zone calls with the new Lincoln.

I put it together, got the cartridge in there, and made sure the hose and the two-piece end that goes on the zerks were good and tight. I primed it, and got the air out. Put the connector on the first zerk (MMM), and pumped away.

1. I saw no evidence of the grease getting in there. The zerk was clean as a whistle when I pulled the connector off.

2. If any grease was going in the zerk, just as much was oozing out of the area where the two-piece head that attaches to the zerk screws together. Add to that that in order to put the connector on the next zerk, I had to unscrew the connector enough to give the three claws that fasten around the zerk enough room to get around the zerk.

I tried this with several other zerks, including those on the FEL and the front suspension ball joints. Got similar results for each one. I was under the impression that lubed properly, you see grease oozing out of the part that you're lubing. I guess I don't deserve a lincoln - since I can't make the cheapie work right.

Am I doing something wrong? More to the point: "What am I doing wrong?"

/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif Jim

Bird · Aug 11, 2002

What am I doing wrong?

Well . . ., you may have simply gotten a defective grease gun, but my first guess would be that you only thought you got all the air out and the air that's still there is keeping it from pumping any grease. Voice of experience - and lots of it./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

BKColeman · Aug 11, 2002

Voice of experience - and lots of it.

Any tips on how to get the air out? Grease guns have long been the bane of my existence. I always make a mess and am never real successful purging the air out.

Bird · Aug 11, 2002

Any tips on how to get the air out?

Not really; at least none that aren't included in the instructions with the guns. It's just been my experience that even following the instructions doesn't necessarily get all the air purged on the first try . . . or the second try . . . or . . ., well, I eventually get it done, and sometimes even get lucky the first time. And you always make a mess? You mean there might be another way?/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif I thought you were supposed to have grease from your elbows to your fingertips anytime you lubricate a vehicle or machinery./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

MJB · Aug 12, 2002

Here is a little trick that I use to get the air worked out of grease guns. Once you have purged the air using the instructions provided with the gun, turn the gun over such that the hose end is pointing down, and give the gun a sharp rap on the edge of your workbench. The idea is to drive the grease down into the pump chamber. Pump the handle a few times with the hose end still pointing down and the air bubble should be forced out the end of the hose. I have two guns, one is a hand pump and the other is a pneumatic unit. This procedure works like a charm on either of my guns. Hope this helps.

BKColeman · Aug 12, 2002

I have recently started storing my grease gun upside down, letting gravity do it's trick for me. But that doesn't help when loading a new one. I'll trying giving it a whack next time. Thanks.

webbmeister · Aug 12, 2002

Hi Bird:

Grease is coming out of the business end - it is the two-piece screw together connector that I'm not so sure about. Come to think of it, I don't see anything in the connector that would push down the captive ball in the zerk. Maybe I got a bad connector?

Jim

Bird · Aug 12, 2002

Maybe I got a bad connector?

Of course I can't say for sure, but that's certainly a possibility; only had that happen once personally, and that was quite recently. The first time I used the pneumatic grease gun I now have, I put it on a zerk, pumped grease in and then simply could not get it off the zerk no matter how hard I tried. In fact, I eventually pulled the zerk right out of it's fitting, removed the connector from the grease gun, clamped down on the zerk in my bench vise, and still could not get them apart. Darndest thing I ever saw. I took that connector with the zerk still in it to TSC where I had bought the gun and they gave me a new connector.

I don't see anything in the connector that would push down the captive ball in the zerk

I don't think you're supposed to see anything that pushes the ball down; I think the ball is like a check valve, the pressure pushes it down to let the grease in and the spring behind it keeps the grease from coming back out.

Phred · Aug 13, 2002

webbmeister,

When your machine came did it have a lot of paint on the three point hitch? The resaon I ask is that my unit was painted very well to say the very least. So well that you could not get the hitch pins the first time with out just a bit of gentle persuassion (ie.. large rubber hammer). This paint job also painted over the zerks. Neat effect was I had a thin coat of paint over the top of the zerk.
Easy to fix with one scrap of a razor blade or putty knife. However, it took me a few minuites to figure it out since the paint looks like dryed grease.
This would explain the fact that you pump and pump and no grease goes in.... been there done that.

Those crazy itilian painters!

Phred

webbmeister · Aug 13, 2002

Phred:

No paint on the zerks. I wiped them off real well and they are shiney, bare metal.

I, too, had to clean drip/overspray out of the 3PH. Call me sick, but I had fun!

Jim