Zerk fittings not taking grease

[kongmen]

I've read to use heat but not sure how much don't want to distort metal. Has anyone used that new tool that you hit with a hammer and it supposedly pushes some kind of solvent into the joint thus freeing it up? Think it's like $50 or $60. I could get a small propane torch for that I would imagine. I have 2 fittings on the backhoe that will not take grease no matter what. I already cleaned fittings and tried fishing wire in the joint. Any thoughts?

 

[Craig Clayton]

To Kongmen
If you have already replaced the fittings with new ones then that is one problem solved. If you use a lever type grease gun they able to supply 10,000 psi with you push really hard. You could make a adapter to thread the flex hose of the grease gun into the threaded fitting for the grease nipple ,and use a thined down grease cut with varsol etc to get the grease flowing
Craig Clayton

 

[rutwad]

Never used one, but heard those grease rejuvenators work GREAT!

 

[jinman]

. . . tried fishing wire in the joint. Any thoughts?

Can you explain what you mean by that? I recently had a zerk that refused grease, but after removal, I could see hardened grease/gunk under the zerk fitting. I cleaned out the packed grease and it cleared the plugging problem. Is that what you mean by "fishing wire in the joint"? I think heating would be a good way to soften a clog. You also have to consider that the clog could be from packed metal dust/fragments. I've even found on my FEL that moving the bucket and taking stress off the joint sometimes helps to open clearances. ...just my random thoughts. I hope you get the problem solved.

 

[kongmen]

I like the idea of using some kind of fitting on the grease (I am using a hand gun and it has worked to force grease into some of the other fittings) gun to force watered down grease into the joint. Where to get such a fitting? And what substance to use for this? Or maybe I should just use one of those rejuvenators? What I met by fishing wire into the joint is I tried using a piece of thin wire to ravel out the joint that the fitting was attached to. One of the problem fittings is underneath the backhoe right were the backhoe pivot's left and right and I don't know how to take pressure off that area.

 

[Soundguy]

try watching it from a semi safe distance and have a trusted operator slowly move controls till you see that joint move, then move it to a new orientation and try to grease it.

soundguy

 

[sellercreek]

Can you explain what you mean by that? I recently had a zerk that refused grease, but after removal, I could see hardened grease/gunk under the zerk fitting. I cleaned out the packed grease and it cleared the plugging problem. Is that what you mean by "fishing wire in the joint"? I think heating would be a good way to soften a clog. You also have to consider that the clog could be from packed metal dust/fragments. I've even found on my FEL that moving the bucket and taking stress off the joint sometimes helps to open clearances. ...just my random thoughts. I hope you get the problem solved.

Good checklist. The only thing you might try in addition is, once you've cleaned it, backing the zerk off half a turn and trying to get it to take grease. Will sometimes work if the zerk is butted up against whatever part you are trying to grease.

 

[irwin]

I had a badly plugged backhoe swing pin..
I used a combination of the grease rejuvinator .. heat... and a piece of mechanics wire. First the rejuvenator.. no good (bad spot for it, not a straight shot).. then the wire.. remove zerk, put a bend at the end of a section of wire and felt around for the tiny grease passage hole.. it was packed with dirt, grease and whatever..using the wire I dug what I could from the passage hole, I then used a MAP gas torch and heated the grease and the body of the swing mount and poured warm penetrating oil in hole and put the zerk back on..... finally got it to pop and a flood of warm oil and grease squeezed out... I keep it well greased now.

I think me picking at the passage with the wire helped, I got a few pebble sized balls of dirt/grease clots out with it.

 

[kongmen]

This is what I believe to be the swing pin area it's all the way at the bottom... the fitting that faces the ground. The pin tool would be difficult to use. I tried wire but wasn't able to get in very far. Were could I get some of this mechanics wire? I didn't know there was a small hole behind the fitting. I'll see if I can find that next time I try using some kind of wire. I was just putting a bend in the wire and trying to go 90 degrees in either direction.

 

[Mace Canute]

I had a badly plugged backhoe swing pin..........
it was packed with dirt, grease and whatever.
I think me picking at the passage with the wire helped, I got a few pebble sized balls of dirt/grease clots out with it.

This is just my opinion... I believe that sometimes, it isn't dirt that you find, but the carrier for the lube in the grease that has dried out...the oil in the grease has dissipated. Take a U-joint for example. It should be extremely hard for dirt to work it's way into a rapidly spinning unit that also has a fairly good seal to prevent ingress of foreign material, wouldn't you say? And yet, I've seen what looks like dirt in failed ones that I have replaced. (Anecdotally, I've heard from multiple sources that Lubriplate grease is clay based.) That being said, if you are having trouble with a zerk not taking grease, the cause is not greasing it enough! A little trick that might[.i] work to free it up is to get a light weight solvent into the passage, like a decent penetrating fluid. If you are lucky, after giving it time to work, it will soften the dried out base enough that it will flow out when you hit it with a grease gun again. But of course, sometimes you just have to run the gamut of possibilities before you get one to work!