Grease Gun Stuck to Zerks

[ClendenninTrail]

Does anyone have trouble with removing their grease gun from zerk fittings? This is my first Kubota, just wondering if maybe the grease fitting are an odd size. I'm afraid of breaking something. My grease gun seams to go on somewhat easily. There is some initial resistance, but the gun pops on with very little effort. However, after I give it a little grease, the gun does not want to come off. I managed to hit all the fittings on one side of the loader, but I was literally sweating from the effort required.

Thanks.

 

[wdchyd]

Grease nozzles are made in two parts.....use two sets of pliers (or wrenches if it has wrench flats)....and loosen the two sections of the nozzle, it'll relieve the pressure of the grease allowing the nozzle two fall off grease zerk.....

You should leave the two sections of the nozzle finger tight so you won't need tools to relieve pressure....it works and avoids damage to zerk fittings....:thumbsup:

 

[tommu56]

Loosen the tip of the gun some you might only need a 1/8 or 1/4 turn to do it or loosen it a full turn and pump it if it pops off tighten it 1/8 turn and put it on and pump again till you hit the sweet spot were it will stay on and come off easily.

tom

 

[wdchyd]

There's other threads dealing with this issue, resulting in basically the same advice....:thumbsup:....

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...121953-near-impossible-remove-grease-gun.html

 

[ClendenninTrail]

I appreciate the advice. As usual, the problem is with the operator, not the equipment.

 

[k0ua]

There was a thread on here recently where the OP broke some Zerks off of his Kubota, and got mad and gave the tractor away..course not too many people believed him, but if you are thinking of giving away your tractor, let me know:laughing:

James K0UA

 

[TripleR]

There was a thread on here recently where the OP broke some Zerks off of his Kubota, and got mad and gave the tractor away..course not too many people believed him, but if you are thinking of giving away your tractor, let me know:laughing:

James K0UA

Same here, I am running a shelter in the scenic countryside for old retired people and will gladly take equipment donations. Of course so far there are only the two of us...:laughing:

 

[wdchyd]

There was a thread on here recently where the OP broke some Zerks off of his Kubota, and got mad and gave the tractor away..course not too many people believed him, but if you are thinking of giving away your tractor, let me know:laughing:

James K0UA

Wouldn't surprise me......those darn junk zerks......:laughing:

 

[jonyyuma]

Have you seen the zerks that ar forced into the holes? The end is slightly flared and taps in, no screws. I first thought they were mismade or defective. i wonder how much pressure that hey will hold back? No ,I haven't broken any of mine on the loader yet.

 

[wdchyd]

Yep, I've seen them .187 dia holes, they have ribs on them instead of threads .....just another quick way to do something substandard.......

 

[Jeff Lary]

Ok i give,...what is a zerk fitting?

 

[beppington]

Does anyone have trouble with removing their grease gun from zerk fittings? This is my first Kubota, just wondering if maybe the grease fitting are an odd size. I'm afraid of breaking something. My grease gun seams to go on somewhat easily. There is some initial resistance, but the gun pops on with very little effort. However, after I give it a little grease, the gun does not want to come off. I managed to hit all the fittings on one side of the loader, but I was literally sweating from the effort required.

I broke a zerk grease fitting on my Kubota, & then started really focusing on the problem. I ended up finding out that, while I didn't realize it, my grease gun's coupler is a two-piece aka split unit (I now believe most/ all are??), & it took a vice, vice grips, & incredible force to break it free the first time ... I wonder how hard they twist these things on at the factory???? :confused2: Must be done by a machine that's out of adjustment & over-crankin' 'em.

Anyway, once you have a smooth-working two-piece coupler, when the coupler gets stuck on a zerk, you can just twist the coupler loose just a tiny bit, & the coupler should just about fall right off the zerk :thumbsup:

 

[beppington]

Ok i give,...what is a zerk fitting?

It's the name of the little fitting that you attach a grease gun to, so you can squeeze more grease into the joint. You should have many of them on your tractor, assuming you have a tractor?

Hopefully you haven't been failing to re-grease them for an extended period of time?

Grease fitting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Jeff Lary]

been running equiptment all my life we call em ,,,,get this greese fittings

 

[beppington]

been running equiptment all my life we call em ,,,,get this greese fittings

Ah, good deal then. A rose by any other name ...

 

[Jeff Lary]

yes sorry that was not very nice of me ,
It is just that i work with a slew of engineers and they go out of thier way to find the most difficult way to describe somthing. I think they think it makes them seem smart. I just had a meeting with 3 of them the other day and after listening to them ramble on about all the information they had collected i spoke up and showed them a 3 ring binder i had with all the info they just spewed and a whole lot more. I then told them that i had put all this info together at thier request back in 2002.Then i started off next with " Boys i may not be an Engineer but...." Probobly not wise fo my career but very much needed.

 

[svejkovat]

Hope it's not in terribly bad form to resurrect such an old thread. But if anyone else comes in here searching the same problem I'll add what I hope is useful info.

I got here from a google search "stuck zerk". Thanks for the info. Someone pointed out at another board that when this does happen, and since it does not happen consistently even with the same gun, it is likely an indication that pressure is going unrelieved beyond the gun's coupler itself. That's either a clogged zerk, very bad news since you're not getting any grease where you wanted it, you need to remove the zerk and clean/unclog it........ or it's simply a very tight bearing that does not provide any egress of the old grease while you're pressing in the new.

The latter was the case in my situation. I replaced a shaft and bronze bushing. There is a zerk on the arbor and a hole drilled in the bushing. The bushings needed honing after pressing into the arbors and the shaft was a close fit. This situation required very significant pressure from the gun to get grease into the bushing. If I'd known what was happening I might have simply loosened the barrel/coupler on the gun tip to relieve the pressure. Instead I got so angry that I took a wrench to the gun tip and snapped off the dang zerk fitting. Much swearing and throwing of tools ensued

 

[gengine]

A lot of times it helps if you can spin the shaft while pumping grease, especially with new bushings. As for clogged zerks, I bought an assortment from napa for ~$20. when I can't get grease into one, I replace zerk. If you don't want an assortment, go to your local ace, Here they sell them around 20 cents a piece. They are so cheap, it's not really worth trying to clean them. The come in sae and metric, and are pipe threaded, so don't go crazy tightening them down, or you will strip your hole and not have a zerk at all.

 

[jesseb3@att.net]

I never knew the $@&); grease gun nozzle was adjustable!! How I got through life without knowing that valuable tidbit is beyond me, but I'm glad you brought this thread back to life! I'll claim that some Kubota zeros are a bit loose/weak, especially those pressed into the anti scalp rollers, but some that I've detached we're probably my fault. Thanks for the education!

 

[FunnelWeb]

I've never heard of them being called zerks before. I've previously only heard them referred to as grease nipples.