Grease Gun trouble

[hopson0352]

I believe I must be doing something wrong with my grease guns. At first I had a small cheap one from Home Depot to grease my lawn mower. Recently I purchased my first tractor (L4400HST) and thought I had better get a full sized gun. Picked up what I believed was a decent one from Tractor Supply. Anyway, I put it on the grease fitting, pump a couple of times, and then see grease ooze out. Good. On the next fitting, I begin pumping then I loose pressure on the handle from grease gun. I believe it is not pushing grease anymore. Before, when not attached to a fitting, I could squeeze the handle and grease would squirt out. Now I try and nothing comes out.

So my questions are...How do you know the grease gun is actually working? Should I feel some pressure in the handle/trigger of the grease gun? What does it mean when I feel no more pressure? Do grease guns and/or grease fittings get clogged? and if so how do you unclog them? If the gun is not connected to a fitting should it squirt out?

Am I doing something wrong, or is it my cheap grease guns? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

And I've been a member for months, and read posts on here frequently, but this is my first post. I appreciate all the great info you guys have to offer.

 

[the6shooter]

The grease gun prob. has air in the gun, is there a ball type valve next to the gun hose ? if so us your thumb nail or screw driver and press in on it. this will help get the air out. The pressure of the cartidge spring will push out the air, as the grease moves the air out.
Hope this helps
david

 

[k0ua]

I believe I must be doing something wrong with my grease guns. At first I had a small cheap one from Home Depot to grease my lawn mower. Recently I purchased my first tractor (L4400HST) and thought I had better get a full sized gun. Picked up what I believed was a decent one from Tractor Supply. Anyway, I put it on the grease fitting, pump a couple of times, and then see grease ooze out. Good. On the next fitting, I begin pumping then I loose pressure on the handle from grease gun. I believe it is not pushing grease anymore. Before, when not attached to a fitting, I could squeeze the handle and grease would squirt out. Now I try and nothing comes out.

So my questions are...How do you know the grease gun is actually working? Should I feel some pressure in the handle/trigger of the grease gun? What does it mean when I feel no more pressure? Do grease guns and/or grease fittings get clogged? and if so how do you unclog them? If the gun is not connected to a fitting should it squirt out?

Am I doing something wrong, or is it my cheap grease guns? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

And I've been a member for months, and read posts on here frequently, but this is my first post. I appreciate all the great info you guys have to offer.

You probably just have some air in the chamber of the grease gun. Yes grease should come out when you pump it in free space. It helps when the grease is warmer when you change tubes of grease, you can try to unscrew the top of the gun 2 or 3 turns (don't take it off) this will make a little vacuum . Pump several times and screw it back down. If you have a bleeder valve on tip you can try opening it. In any case you need to get the air lock out of the gun.. Kinda like vapor lock in a gas line. Let us know how you make out.

James K0UA

 

[mrmikey]

Another thing you can do is pull out the 'T' handle and push in while turning it slightly until it catches on the plunger. Once it's caught push on the 'T', up against a bench, wall or something while squeezing the handle, that'll force out the air......Mike

 

[nue2farm]

hummm, I can put a new tube in my grease gun, hang it up, then the next time I use it it is empty. Have fun and stay safe.....

 

[Willl]

hummm, I can put a new tube in my grease gun, hang it up, then the next time I use it it is empty. Have fun and stay safe.....

I kinda got the same problem here. Seems to be connected with the creeper some how. With the final ingredient being myself.

 

[hopson0352]

Hey guys thanks for the input. I tinkered with it trying to remove the air, but that didn't seem to help. I was so fed up with it that I started all over by removing the tube of grease. I pulled the T handle back, unscrewed the top and, just to investigate, slowly released the T handle. Of course, it wasn't even pushing the grease. The "plunger" that does the pushing wasn't going inside the tube. Couple of wiggles and turns fixed the problem. Got the loader,3ph, and lawn mower all greased up now.

And might I had, John Deere has done an awful job of grease point locations on their lawn mowers. I would really like to find the guys who thought that up and have him grease my mower. See how good of an idea he had after that. Oh well.

Thanks for the help

 

[brucew44guns]

I have found many times on many guns---that the rubber plunger just does not get started into the end of the tube at the git go. It must hang up on the edge of the cardboard tube and the spring just does not move it into position. Hard to understand all this since we know a grease gun is so high tech that it should always work:laughing: Oh well, just a bit of life kicking in to make it fun.

 

[jcummins]

I have found many times on many guns---that the rubber plunger just does not get started into the end of the tube at the git go. It must hang up on the edge of the cardboard tube and the spring just does not move it into position. Hard to understand all this since we know a grease gun is so high tech that it should always work:laughing: Oh well, just a bit of life kicking in to make it fun.

Exactly. I now load my guns with a new cartridge by putting the gun in a vise, and manually put the tube over the plunger, then pull the plunger back, tube with it, then screw the head on. Until I started doing that I was all the time having problems. The cardboard cartridges simply don't have the right tolerance for the plungers.