Dirt Moving proper care with grease

[Gem99ultra]

I like to use those little plastic slip over caps covering my zerks. They're not only good for keep the dirt away from the zerk inlet but they also aid in spotting those hard to see zerks. Perhaps I'm getting old, but I have occasions that I've forgotten where all of the grease fittings are located. In fact, this past weekend I found one on my lawn mower that I had missed seeing for 10 years!

You can buy a sack full of those little caps for next to nothing, and in whatever color suits your fancy. You Green Tractor guys will no doubt get excited over that. They, of course also come in red and blue colors. Is that non-denominational? Me? i use the bright yellow ones so they're easy to spot.

Amazon.com : grease fitting caps

 

[FTG-05]

As far as enviromental considerations. A friend likes to ask sarcastically, where do you think those many millions tubes of grease end up?

Or as I like to say: Grease guns were designed and manufactured by the paper towel companies. Sorta like automatic transmissions were designed and built by the brake companies.

 

[Avenger]

I recently did a video on this subject
Tools, Techniques, Tips 'N' Tricks - Grease! - YouTube

I use a wipe and clean the end of the zerk, attach the lock n lube, and pump grease until the old grease starts to move. The joint will get dirty, that the nature of the beast. The important thing is putting good grease between the two metal moving parts.
You can try to pressure wash the joint, but unless you are using one of those steam pressure washers, you're probably just going to be spreading the grease around.

 

[Byrdnyrd]

I use old socks to clean my Zerks! Put your hand in the sock and twist the Zerk, reposition the sock, next Zerk....repeat. When all is done strip the sock off your hand inside out and put it back in your Dresser.......I mean the Trash.

Cheers,
BN

 

[mikester]

I use old socks to clean my Zerks! Put your hand in the sock and twist the Zerk, reposition the sock, next Zerk....repeat. When all is done strip the sock off your hand inside out and put it back in your Dresser.......I mean the Trash.

Cheers,
BN

Thanks for the laugh!

I was thinking I should scrape it off the tractor into small containers and sell it on the internet as a face cream/exfoliate health and wellness product. Id even get a washed up movie actress to promote it. Id call it GOOP and sell it for $175 per 1.7 fl.oz. Container.

 

[DieselBound]

I toss a pile of used rags right next to my grease guns and use them, the rags, for cleaning up zerks. Only really need to clean the head of the zerk, but I find that sometimes a zerk might be hiding in a gob of grease so I end up cleaning so I can find the zerk! (on my B7800 the zerks for the front loader cylinders are horrible to get to and I always end up pumping grease all over the place).

After years with a manual-pump grease gun, and a very brief trial with an air-powered one, I broke down and bought a 20v DeWalt grease gun. WOW!

In case folks struggle with bleeding air out of their grease guns, here's a great tip:

How to bleed a grease gun every time! - YouTube

 

[Industrial Toys]

Just got me to thinking. I bet they sell "no show socks" for five times the price of regular tube socks. People probably pay a premium to not have their socks showing. How yesterday!

You could put the grease on the shelf right next to ZIMS CRACK CREAM. Who is ZIM anyway?

 

[kwbretired]

I just bought a Dewalt 20 volt grease gun. Really makes greasing things a lot easier. One thing I’m having problems with is when l put in a new tube of grease, l can’t push the rod back in. What am l doing wrong.

 

[Gem99ultra]

I just bought a Dewalt 20 volt grease gun. Really makes greasing things a lot easier. One thing I’m having problems with is when l put in a new tube of grease, l can’t push the rod back in. What am l doing wrong.

Instructions on msg 26 link with a 10 minute yak session with a 10 second instruction part.

 

[DieselBound]

I just bought a Dewalt 20 volt grease gun. Really makes greasing things a lot easier. One thing I’m having problems with is when l put in a new tube of grease, l can’t push the rod back in. What am l doing wrong.

I believe you just have to twist the handle/rod a bit (1/4 turn?). Assumes you don't have a defective unit.

 

[frogpond]

I do like to clean off the excess grease each time--at least the major globs and crusts. Two reasons: When you wash the tractor with a hose, if there's a lot of grease, it gets spread around on every surface, and then on me. Secondly, it conceals problems. A few months ago, I discovered that the pin connecting the loader arm to the bucket had broken and half of it was missing. Grease had replaced the missing piece of steel, and formed a nice crust when mixed with dirt, thus mimicking the missing piece. You couldn't see the problem until it was cleaned.

 

[GeneV]

I never power wash, well actually, I don't even regular wash my tractors...usually I just scrape off dried dirt, that's about it. I do store my tractors indoors though. As for greasing, I always wipe the top of the zerk off before greasing. I use a lock n lube. I hit the lube only until I could see some grease start to creep out of the joint, usually that's old grease. I leave that alone unless there's a whole goop hanging there, I'll wipe that off.

 

[MikeR 2018]

Hello,
I have read(and practice) cleaning zerk points before greasing my tractor. As a person new to tractors, do you clean the joints where the grease exits as well? Does the old grease protect the joint, or act like a scouring agent since it is dirty? I bought my Case 45 used and in this condition, see attached photos. I use it in a very fine dirt environment leveling roads and moving dirt. I never cleaned the old grease because the prior owner hadn't. I have attached pictures for clarity. I am doing the maintenance of blowing out air filters, checking oil etc. in the manual, but I can't find any info about how clean to keep things that are habitually dirty.

thank you,
AnnetteView attachment 658117View attachment 658118

After staining a couple shirts by brushing up against a zerk, I now wipe all exposed surfaces clean. I don't mind soil-dirt but I hate grease stains.