The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Zerk fittings found

I bought some zerk fittings at HF last year that turned out to be junk. Poor metal, and about half of them wouldn’t take grease so I’ve been looking for some high quality replacements. I was in Tractor Supply last week and stumbled upon their selection of zerks and looked them over. The first thing I noticed about them was that they are heavy. Heavier than the ones I got from HF for sure. Then I was impressed by the quality and detail. They look very well-made. I wish they had been black oxide, but that didn’t stop me from buying some to try. I plan on installing them this weekend and will report on how they perform.

I'm guessing that they're stainless steel?

I thought the same thing. Hard to tell though whether it’s stainless or chrome plated. I lean towards stainless. They’re really well made.

* I just used an angled welding magnet to see if they stick and they did, but not very well. My guess is that they are made of some sort of an alloy with a lot of stainless in it.

Good morning Chuck.

According to this article some stainless is slightly magnetic:

https://www.greenwoodmagnetics.com/...nce-between-304-and-316-stainless-steel/

It's not surprising that the HF Zerks are junk, is it? The only things that they have that aren't junk are zip ties and electrical tape. Quality must not be an issue for some people because HF manages to stay in business.

It's nice to know that Tractor Supply has good Zerks.

Ray W

Many Tractor Supply products are the same as the Harbor Freight products (with different "brand name" tags and sometimes different colors).

One recently discussed example is recalled jack stands.

There is non-magnetic stainless and magnetic stainless. And I've seen some plated brass watch screws which would respond to a magnetic screwdriver. Only true way to know is to nick one with a file. If you see brass, you have plated brass. If you don't, you have something else.

The coil spring in a brass(never seen brass ones) would provide some mag. Attraction.

Ed

The better quality SS in the 316 range will be non magnetic. The "cheaper" down in the 304 range will be slightly magnetic and less corrosion resistent.

I bought an assortment of 316 stainless Zerks and replace everything with them. I also bought a bag of the covers to keep them clean. They are a pain to polish but my thumbnails are quite shiny.

I agree. I greased my whole truck last night, and had to use a wire brush on my drill to clean them off, and then sprayed them with carb cleaner and a fresh rag before applying grease.