Grease fitting not taking grease

pull the fitting off, and take a drill that's smaller than thread dia. and, just by hand, run it in
and core out the hard crusty grease. put a new fitting on and try it now, it should take grease.
Put one of those rubber caps on it; don't have one - get one. (or a dozen)
Never saw a fitting that was capped do that.

 

You can change the fittings, however what has built up behind them in the hole may have crusted over use a scribe to probe the hole before replacing the zerk.

 

It's not really for cleaning fittings, it's more for things that will not take grease. The one I have is used with a hammer. I take the fitting out, clean the hole as deep as I can, spray penetrating oil in it, then put the fitting back on and use the tool. You fill it with penetrating oil and hit it with a hammer.

If it's just hard grease and dirt, it'll probably be good to go, just check for play before you grease it up. If a lot of rust comes out, you may have bought some time, but it really needs to come apart. I use it mostly on spring pins that not been greased in a long time.

 

Yes! They also make a tool to clean the fitting so the ball will seat properly but for the couple of bucks it cost it's worth changing the fitting and be done with it!

 

I agree with GrapeApe. I have one of those tools too. I inherited it. I wouldn't have bought it. It works fine but you grease often the need for it is rare. And even when you do have a joint that not taking grease there are other ways of persuading the flow of lubricant.

Just change out the zerks regularly when the fail. The cheap chinese ones go out all the time. Even the quality ones will clog. If you wipe excess grease off the zerk both before and after greasing, any zerk will last longer. Its the water and grime that gets attracted to the grease that holds the ball off the seat that clogs the zerk.

 

I get sick of telling my mechanics this, I sound like a broken record, but I keep catching them not doing it. Simply wipe the zerk clean BEFORE you grease it. Pump a tiny bit of grease into a rag and wipe off the end of the grease gun BEFORE you use it. If you don't, any dirt on them gets pushed into whatever you're greasing. It doesn't take much dirt to keep that little check ball from sealing and even a tiny bit of dirt can contaminate the grease.

I use several rags when greasing. Clean before and after, I hate it when someone leaves globs of grease that always find it's way on my clothes or in my hair. It's good to make sure you get grease to all 4 U-joint caps, but theirs no reason it has to be all over the frame rails and back of the cab. Fish a rag through there and clean it up so it doesn't get slung all over please. If grease is going everywhere but into the zerk, you have a bad zerk, bad grease hose end, or you're not snapped on to it. STOP pumping and fix it.

 

Wouldn't new zerks be cheaper?
Less time waisted

 

Never ever heat a grease zerk. Just replace.

 

BOTH HAMMERS AT 1:08 ARE NOT THE CORRECT TOOLS - IN A PROMOTIONAL VIDEO?
Yes, a good idea. Hydraulics is a wonderful thing.
Keeping in mind for the price of the tool, you can buy 25 grease fittings.