Zircs - My dumb question of the month coupon

It might not be the zerk , the area that needs grease or the passage leading to it may be clogged up with , well , crud .

Very!

There is an impact tool which cleans them, but it can also inject dirt, plus it's expensive.

43 bucks? Fergitit. Replacement it always easier and cheaper in the long run.

oodles of replacements for $12.

or less at HFT, $5 for 32pc metric, $7.49 for 50pc SAE.

and

I suggest hitting them with a torch, lightly, before doing anything. it will catch the grease inside on fire and blow the little check ball out, clears the obstruction that was likely just past the zerk. Plus, now the zerk is loose so it will screw right off.

If you don't have a spare handy,just grease it this way.

karl

SteveB wrote in news:lrpm7r$mfk$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:

Remove the zerk, and use pliers to hold it into the business end of your grease gun. Cover it with a rag. One pull on the handle of the gun will blow everything out of the zerk.

Of course that won't help if the obstruction isn't in the zerk itself.

SteveB wrote in news:lrpm7r$mfk$1 @speranza.aioe.org:

Heh! Just wait 'til you find the other 23 of them you missed!

An old tractor parts guy I once knew said, "Nothing makes an old tractor run better than a paint job." I always thought he was just saying it made the owner FEEL better about the way it ran -- until I repainted an old 8N.

If you choose to do a good paint job, you have to strip the beast down to its bones. When you do, you'll find 473 little things that need fixing.

Like, who wants to leave old, cracked plug wires in a nice, newly-painted wire chase? Who wants a drippy water pump gland smutching up your new paint? Oil leaks? C'mon! It'll just take a minute.... And when you fix them, the tractor actually WILL run better! A heck of a lot better.

Lloyd

They come in standard sizes and threads. Usually a hand full of various sizes and angles will do you for a while. If you want to clean them you can take them out, stick them in the grease gun and pull the trigger. If they don't squirt throw them away. (if they do squirt you've probably used more grease then a new fitting would cost :-)

Like potato chips, betcha can't fix just ONE!

I believe some of the new tractors are coming with central lube systems. I think the same has been on some construction equipment for a while. Progress...

I believe some of the new tractors are coming with central lube systems. I think the same has been on some construction equipment for a while. Progress...

========================================================== [Ed]

Hey, they're catching up to the 1932 Packard, which had Bijur central chassis lubrication. I think they'd had it for four or five years at that point in time. d8-)

Yeah, there were only a couple, but I used an ice pick and thin bladed screwdriver to get the mud out of a couple to where the zirc was clear and accessible.

Steve

I think at the cost of them, I'll just get a bunch of them, and fiddle with each a little, then put a new one in, or keep the bad ones, and maybe boil them in a solvent, or something. Maybe make up an air chuck that will blow air through the zirc that I have removed, and use air to clean it out instead of using/wasting grease.

Steve

SteveB wrote in news:lrrcqu$ru4$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:

[...]

Zerk, after its inventor Oscar Zerk. Not "zirc".

I'd call anyone doing that an idiot to their face, unless they removed it from the vehicle first. And if they're doing that, it's best to use a new one.

If he's talking a disc-harrow or similar piece of equipment the kerosene and regrease may be an acceptable solution. On a tractor, if it is a part that has no seals and the grease keeps the dirt out, it may also be an acceptable solution - but not on any part that is sealed , even if only with a rubber gaitor. If the idea is to get fresh grease in and through the joint to lubricate it, it is often successfull and beats tearing the assembly down to run a wire through the hole to knock the crud (dried grease and dirt) out.

DO NOT do this on a high speed bearing.

Be extra careful. They might be under a high pressure and a small leak when you unlock it might burn through a hand or finger.

Air would be nice. I have to think of it on my John Deer.

Martin

Hardly worth it :-)

Way back when I was a boy and cars were greased every 1,000 miles I worked weekends in a service station. Any zirk that didn't take grease we removed and threw on the floor and put a new one in free.

Yeah. So how would you remove the kerosene from the joint? Why wouldn't the kerosene continue to break down any grease that came after it? I stand by my statement because that procedure would cause the joint to fail prematurely. _Worse_ than not lubing it.

On 08/06/2014 8:03 AM, Larry Jaques wrote: ...

...

It'll get displaced by the new grease (once and presuming one actually does get the solid broken down which happens in most instances) and what little is left will volatize and be gone in a short time.

It's done all the time as the other poster notes on lots of heavy equipment; fairly routine on farm equipment with all the dirt it's subjected to and the sometimes long intervals between usage of a particular implement.

I've got one rear spring shackle on the old C60 farm truck, however, that has been a bear to grease since it was nearly new in '58 and now haven't been able to get anything in it for years. I've futzed with it several times and have finally just given up. Only fully pulling the mount seems like will solve the problem and since don't use this truck for anything but a seed tender and around the place for occasional chores like picking up limbs and tumbleweeds around the yard, it'll outlast me...

Which fall into the category of " a part that has no seals and the grease keeps the dirt out"