Zerk fittings not taking grease. Puzzled.

[westbrooklawn]

I've had two zerks fail on me recently due to a failure I had never seen before. When I removed the zerks, I found that the spring behind the ball in the zerk had been pushed out of the back of the zerk... found one of the springs mashed between the wear surfaces, but never found the spring for the second one. When these springs come out, it allows the ball to lodge at the bottom of the zerk, and no grease will go through. Easy enough to just replace the zerk. Now if I have one that won't take grease, I immediately look at the tip of the zerk to see if the ball is missing.

 

[Hellspawn]

I did manage to find a spare new coupling in my toolbox so hopefully if that is the issue it will be quick to fix. I'll check in later today with what happened.

 

[strum456]

So from reading the MMM posts I could find on here I guess I messed up something else too. I used my pressure washer today to clean the crap from underneath around and on top of the gear box. I see there is a vent on it? I didn't hit the zerks with it though.

****.

The pressure washer will be really hard on your spindle seals. If you must pressure wash your deck, make sure to grease it a lot after. I scrape mine once per year and brush it with used motor oil for the winter. No pressure washer (I learned the hard way).

 

[Hellspawn]

A new coupling for the gun took care of it. Worked last time I used it on a deere mower deck. This coupling fits much tighter.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Tollster]

Be sure to wipe the zerks off after applying grease, it seems to help keep them and the implement pretty clean, and make for greasing up next time much easier.

I know on my backhoe I have to swing the boom to a certian angle to have the lower swing zerk take grease.