Grease nipple problems

[Eric_Phillips]

One of the grease nipples on my loader needs to be changed. They put a right angle nipple on so it points directly at the loader arm. I am not sure how they thought you were supposed to get a grease gun on this. Anyway it sure looks like a 8mm nipple. I bought some straight 8mm 1mm pitch nipples from TSC. When I tried putting the new nipples in they didn't cross thread but it tried to make the threads in the nipple deeper. I didn't go very far since I did not want to mess things up. Any idea what nipples I should use? If it matters this is on a FarmTrac 4050M loader.

 

[john_bud]

I have a couple boxed kits of zerks, one metric and one SAE. (From harbor freight) Measure the old one and compare to the new ones. It's not rocket science, unlike the engineering experiment of putting the fitting where you can't reach it!

 

[Farmerford]

Some Asian manufacturers use British Standard Pipe Tapered threads instead of metric. A BSPT 1/16"-28tpi thread is slightly finer and smaller than a metric 8x1 and a BSPT 1/8"-28 tpi is slightly finer and larger than a metric 8x1. If the loader is threaded for BSPT, your metric zerks may screw in, but the fit will not be good. BSPT zerks are available at McMaster Carr.

I got frustrated with keeping four sizes of zerks around: 1/8"-27tpi NPT and 1/4"-28 SAE taper for American stuff, metric for European pto shafts, and BSPT for Japanese tractors, that I bought a 1/8"-27tpi NPT short projection tap that is the pipe tap equivalent of a bottom tap on straight threads. It usually threads even a very shallow hole far enough to hold a zerk. Whenever a zerk needs replacing, if I can get access to the hole I rethread it to 1/8"-27 NPT. At the rate the European and Japanese zerks are either falling out, getting smashed, or just leaking, I will probably have gone through everything in a couple more years.

 

[Eric_Phillips]

Farmerford,
Thanks for the information. Didn't know there is a third "standard". The threads on the zerk I took out did look slightly finer than the metric ones I bought. I bet I have the BSPT 1/16"-28tpi zerks. I will check McMaster-Carr.

 

[AndyMA]

One of the grease nipples on my loader needs to be changed. They put a right angle nipple on so it points directly at the loader arm. I am not sure how they thought you were supposed to get a grease gun on this.

Just curious, have you tried to get a grease gun on it in all loader positions? On several of my machines I need to put backhoes and loaders in 3 or 4 positions to get all zerks.

Andy

 

[rustyanchor]

The loader was made in North Carolina. The tractor was made in S Korea, but the loaders and back hoes on the smaller Farmtracs are American made. May be it is a standard US zirk. I havn't needed to replace any on my FT but I can get you one from my dealer, if you can't get one that goes in right.

Mark

 

[rustyanchor]

Another thought, can you losen the nipple a little to get the gun on? One of the 90deg zirks on my loader is a little lose and will twist about half a turn which makes getting the grease gun on a snap. I haven't had any problem with grease coming out of the threads, so do not believe it is a problem for the zirk to be a little loose.

Mark

 

[shvl73]

I've replaced a couple of zerks on my KMW loader. They used press-in types. I just shut the tractor off and relieve the pressure in the hydraulics. Then pull the pin out of the cylinder, remove the zerk, tap and install the new one. It is fairly simple.

 

[Eric_Phillips]

I have tried several positions but I still can't get to it. I will try turning them about half a turn would make them work. I just expected they would leak if not tight. I will try turning them to grease it them tighten them back up so as not to loose them.

 

[rustyanchor]

If loosening it doesn't work, let me know and I'll swing by my dealer and pick a couple up for you.

Mark

 

[Ford850]

I had a difficult time replacing a couple newer nipples on my CaseIH tractor. The parts list says 1/8 NPT, but the originals were slightly smaller than standard replacements. The 1/8 NPT nipples I bought could only be turned in 1/4 of the way. Metric were worse with threads too fine. I finally ordered replacements from my dealer using part numbers, and they were no better than the standard nipples I bought. I forced the new ones in using a tight fitting 6 point socket on the nipple, with lube on the threads. After seating them completely, I backed them out and the threads look fine. I'm not sure if the original holes were not tapped completely for the full taper or if I have the wrong sized nipples, but they fit now.

 

[3RRL]

I have one like that too, can't get to it except if I get the fel raised in exactly the right place, and it's still a pain.
Have you thought about using a flexible extension? Crew it into the tapped hole and put a Zerk on the end. If you can get it screwed in, perhaps the other end will stick out where you can get to it? Maybe even a pipe nipple?

 

[Eric_Phillips]

I had some FEL work to do so I thought I better get these pins greased. I went to loosen them so they would point in a direction I could get onto them. I just assumed all the zerks on the FEL were the same size. Turned out these ones took a 8mm wrench where the others that I checked took a 9mm. So the new zerks I had purchased were probably just one size too big. Turning them did work and they greased up fine so the incentive to go back to the store and get another size is quite low. Thanks for the help.