Solder in a stripped zerk???

Sebculb · Mar 3, 2018

Hola,

So here's the latest big idea, if I've got a stripped hole for a zerk on the end of one of the pins that holds my rear bucket on, is there any reason I can't solder it in there? I stick weld okay but have no soldering or brazing experience, except for that time an electronics thing didn't really work right.

Anyone have any experience with this? What would I do, heat it up with a torch and slather solder on the joint? Don't want to worry about taps and dies, expensive and hard to find around here. Same with helocoils and "special" zerks.

Thanks!

LouNY · Mar 3, 2018

you couldn't get the pin hot enough for solder flow and it doesn't have much tensile strength, brazing might hold.

fried1765 · Mar 3, 2018

Sebculb said:
Hola,

So here's the latest big idea, if I've got a stripped hole for a zerk on the end of one of the pins that holds my rear bucket on, is there any reason I can't solder it in there? I stick weld okay but have no soldering or brazing experience, except for that time an electronics thing didn't really work right.

Anyone have any experience with this? What would I do, heat it up with a torch and slather solder on the joint? Don't want to worry about taps and dies, expensive and hard to find around here. Same with helocoils and "special" zerks.

Thanks!

I doubt that solder will work for your required application.
When you push grease through the soldered in zerk, the grease pressure will likely back the zerk out.
Can you take the tractor to some local shop? I do think that brazing could work.
3rd world countries tend to have have many talented people who can fix something with nothing.

Sebculb · Mar 3, 2018

Thanks, Lou and Fried!

Can brazing be done with a regular propane torch? I prefer to learn how whenever possible.

Sebculb · Mar 3, 2018

Also considering an idea I saw somewhere else, weld a nut that the zerk fits into over the stripped hole. That's actually how problems are usually solved in this world where a tap and dies are scarce and considered specialty tools.

RNeumann · Mar 3, 2018

Zerks come in different thread sizes. Most would simply retap the hole one size up and put a new zerk in.

flingwing1969 · Mar 3, 2018

RNeumann said:
Zerks come in different thread sizes. Most would simply retap the hole one size up and put a new zerk in.

I'm with you RNeumann.

airbiscuit · Mar 3, 2018

Find a zerk (SAE or Metric) that is slightly larger. Use a file or hacksaw blade to cut a longitudinal groove in the threads and you have a self threading zerk!

Big Barn · Mar 3, 2018

Yes you could braze it successfully but the heat would probably destroy the spring in the zerk. Drill and retap like others have suggested.

Sebculb · Mar 3, 2018

Air biscuit, I'm liking it! But Zerks around here come in three sizes, small big and huge. Wouldn't really fit.

RNeuman, Flingwing, and Big Barn, yes, you're absolutely right. But drilling and Tapping involves finding someone that has the right tap and disassembling and paying money and blah blah. I was hoping to just put a chewing gum on it and keep moving.

RNeumann · Mar 4, 2018

I’ve never disassembled anything when retapping a broken zerk. This is a tractor FEL etc- not some aerospace thing with tolerances down to the 10,000th. A few metal chips will blow through with a few pumps of grease. U can stick a magnet to your tap if u r really worried.

square1 · Mar 4, 2018

Wouldn't think you could ever get and keep (grease is going to flow when you heat it up) the metal clean enough to braze without disassembly. Re-tap it, use a helicoil if going the next zerk size up isn't an option.

zzvyb6 · Mar 4, 2018

I would just pein it a few times with a hammer or even hit the hole with a center punch a few times. Then install a new Zerk (or even the old one. A grease gun ought to have enough grunt to fill the pin slot without blowing the Zerk out or all the charge grease. I have several in a kit which look like they were self tapping with a graduated thread diameter. Look around for old machinery to borrow one from.

Oldoak · Mar 4, 2018

Good luck with your chewing gum since you tend to ignore sound advice from people who are trying to help you.

fried1765 · Mar 4, 2018

airbiscuit said:
Find a zerk (SAE or Metric) that is slightly larger. Use a file or hacksaw blade to cut a longitudinal groove in the threads and you have a self threading zerk!

Now...THAT is a god idea!
Simple fix!

npalen · Mar 4, 2018

If the internal thread is tapered as a lot of pipe threads are, would be a matter of finding the standard tap and just threading a little deeper to renew the threads.
A thread used quite commonly for a grease zerk, here in the U.S. at least, is 1/8"-27NPT. The 1/8" is a pipe size and a bit misleading as the thread diameter is closer to 5/16" give or take.

Sebculb · Mar 4, 2018

Thanks everyone for all the advice. since the taps are hard to come by here think I'm going to try to fix it the way they do most thread problems around here. I'll try to weld a nut on the end of the pin over the stripped hole. That's hardly Mickey mouse and I can do it with what's here. Probably have to go to the capital to find a tap and die set. I'll post up if it works or not

katoomed00 · Mar 4, 2018

I would find a nipple with the same thread and bury it as deep as possible with out stripping it, then screw a collar and new zerk.
Maybe JB weld might hold it too. If all else fails and I didnt have a tap set, then do as you said just weld (tack it) and be finish.

Gordon Gould · Mar 4, 2018

I have a stripped out zerk in a thin walled mower wheel hub where I can't get a tap or drill because of the rim curvature. I tryed every size zerk I could find for a tight fit and couldn't get anything that would survive the force of coupling/uncoupling the grease gun. But I did discover that if I stuck the correct zerk into the grease gun hose then jammed the threaded end of the zerk into the stripped hole and pumped I could grease the joint. Leaked a little around the zerk but not much. My only problem now is finding a zerk in my messy box.

gg