The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Best way to clean grease fittings

I had about half my truck's grease fittings work correctly when I was greasing them up. What's the best way to fix the fittings that aren't taking grease? Replace them? Clean them?

You can always screw out the zerk and clean it up. Chances are the old grease in the moving part has packed in so tight that it is time to see over the innerds.
Karl

I will try that, Thanks!

Zerks are cheap. Pick up a few next time your at the flaps and you will have them on hand for these situations.

A little heat from a butane microtorch usually frees them up for me. You can buy one cheap at Harbor Freight.

Yep, just replace the clogged ones. No point in wasting a lot of labor time to clean up a part that costs less than a dollar!
Jerry

While you are replacing the grease fittings, use a small screw driver to clean out the hole. If the last grease that was used was the old soap based grease, its hard as a rock by now.

Thanks! Are all the grease fittings the same diameter size? I know they have some that are straight and others are at an elbow.

I believe they have different sizes but most are 1/4-28 threads (at least the box of them I have is! LOL)

They also come in pipe thread and metric, so, measure carefully.

Ed

In a hot industrial environment we use to pull the fitting and squirt Sili-Kroil (we simply call it Kroil here) into the hole and let it sit long enough to smoke a cigarette then shoot the grease to it....I'd say at least 95% of the time it worked.

I just picked up a old Snuff can full of old grease fittings all different sizes and packed full of smelly old grease. I dumped them in a glass jar of kerosene and let them soak for a week they came out great, now I have lots of replacement nipples and they aren't the cheap 1 dollar variety that twist and break when you install them.

Kinda hard to put Made In China grease zerks on my project, had to do it though... Did soak some in lacquer thinner overnite, cleaned up nice

I found replacing a few of the zerks doesn't solve the problem. Driver side King Pin being one of them. Is stated above the best way to solve that problem?

Thanks

I had an old tractor mechanic tell me to heat the area around the zerk with a torch, just enough to soften the old grease. I also cleaned the zerks and bushing cavities out and then shot some new grease in. It worked quite well for me.

Good luck,

....and jack the truck up and see if it helps to get the weight off the wheels. With a helper it might be possible to get him to wiggle/turn the wheels and get the king pins to take the grease??
Its worked for me a time or two but maybe mine was not quite as bad?

Dave and Randy submitted a good Tech Tip about replacing kingpins that explains why the front axle should be jacked up when greasing.

http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/kingpins.htm

I greased mine a couple weeks ago and had one fitting that wouldn't take grease. A little heat solved the problem.

Matt

I need to spend time under the truck today giving it a complete grease job. Hasn’t been done in many years. Want to do it right, so what is the correct type grease I should buy today?
Black, red, white..... they all seem the same to me. Thanks.

Somewhere I have a an old tool that belonged to my Dad. Not sure what it is called and don't recall ever seeing another one. The cap end screws off and pack it full of grease. Screw the cap end back on, put the fitting end on the clogged grease zerk and tap the cap end with a hammer. My Dad used it on all the farm equipment and vehicles. It clears nearly all clogged grease zerks.

Be careful when purchasing new Zerk fittings, the metric ones are hard to distinguish when out of the container.

Ed

Update ..... there was already some grease in the gun so I used it. It’s really thick and sticky!! Had to take off 3 of the zerks and heat them over a flame on the kitchen stove to clear them out. I was successful with two of them but a third still won’t let grease go through it. Unfortunately, it was the one spot that really needed to be lubricated the most......on the rear pivot point for the front leafspring. It’s really dry and squeaks. I’ll buy a new one. Ran out of time, so I haven’t gotten to the rear of the truck yet.

You all (except Lynngrove) may be doing it the hard way. What about this -- Zerk Fitting Cleaner Tool. This one is the Northern Tool version, but most of the majors offer them as well (NAPA, Snap-On, etc). It's simple -- just suck some warm diesel fuel up into it like a syringe, attach it to the zerk, and whack the bejesus out of it with your favorite BFH and ... DONE! If you whack hard enough, you can achieve combustion of the diesel fuel inside the zerk which compounds the effect Isn't it cool that I know this??

I have one and it works great -- saves *most* zerks.

Thanks for that great tool tip!