Loader Zerk -- err is it full?

[poldies4]

Guess I got lucky. My first greasing of my BX everything was going great until I got to the top pin on the hydraulic lever side. Everything else had been greased prior to delivery, except that one zerk. It was clean with no grease at all. As I started to put pressure on the grease gun I noticed no grease was coming out. After another pump of the handle a popping sound, almost like a really small cap. A little dust popped out of the area and then the grease flowed fine. I guess I better go grease them up again.

 

[allenr]

Heat is your friend.

Don't overdo it, but I would try heating the end of the pin and body of the bearing around it, keeping away from the zerk, which had already been cleaned and demonstrated to pass grease.

A few minutes with a propane torch may get the old grease runny enough to be easily displaced by fresh. Then grease it again after it cools down.

Yes - but it's not a friend to the paint.

 

[Grateful11]

Heck the first time I greased our LA724 loader one Zerk came out with the grease gun.
I was like oh man WT? I looked at the Zerk and at first thought it was threaded
1/4"-28 but it was actually a drive-in type, found out by putting a fingernail in the what
looks like a thread and turned it and my finger nail never moved. Another clue that it
was a drive-in type was no hex on the Zerk. I it put back in the hole and it fill in, again
I'm like WT. So I have quite an assortment of Zerks/Alamites and found a new drive
in and it fit fine. I didn't check to see if they're all like this, no hex. I'm wondering if
the thread wasn't messed up before and they just tried to get away with a drive-in Zerk.
Usually once one drive-in type falls out that's it you're not going to get another one
to stay, just I lucked out. I hate drive-in types, they usually wear out before the pin and
are a bear to deal with. If I have any more trouble I'll remove the pin and redrill it for
pipe thread Zerk.

 

[eepete]

CurlyDave, allenr:

What about a heat gun? You could warm things up to 300 degrees or so and not damage the paint? Also avoids problem of propane torch setting grease on fire.

I guess my question is "What temp are you trying to heat things up to?"

Pete

 

[oldballs]

I've been wanting to ask this for some time. Are these zerks tapped with metric dimensions? I tried to replace a difficult fitting on my MMM "self balancing" joint and it wouldn't take any of my SAE stock. The "bottoming out" of a zerk is a new idea that may be my solution. Thanks y'all.

 

[CurlyDave]

I think a heat gun would work just fine. But, I have seen some heat guns which are made for stripping paint so you still need to be careful.

I have a couple of temperature crayons in the back of my tool case that I use to determine when I have heated something enough to destroy locktite but not high enough to remove the temper of steel.

If I had this problem I might be willing to invest in a 200 degree F one and just heat up the bearing until that one melted.

For oldballs: zerks are made in both SAE and metric dimensions. Harbor Freight sells kits with many different sizes and styles in both for about $5.00 each. I bought one kit in each type and have never had a problem with not having the correct replacement in the past few years, well worth the expense.

 

[oldballs]

Thanks, Dave. I'll swear, I'll never get there. Every time I work on something, there's another (bigger) metric socket/wrench or tiny zerk to buy. If I live another 77 years, maybe I'll have it all by then.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

oldballs if you are like me as soon as you get them all you will loose one.

 

[RadarTech]

Great info folks....

No I just gotta get out there and try em all...

Hopefully tonight!

I'll let you know what I find!



Jim

 

[BeezFun]

I bought one of these and filled it with WD-40. I've used it a few times to blast through clogged fittings.