Grease gun

[bobsguns]

No, not the .45acp version. The at-home, do-it-yourself grease gun.

I do all my maintenance at home & am having a hard time when I change the fill tube. I get an air pocket (I'm guessing) trapped in the head & grease won't pump.

I've tried to prime the head with hand-filled globs of grease but not really successful.

At my wits end, help!

Thanks!

 

[AudieMurphy]

I used to have a problem with securing the end cap in the groove on the rod. because the spring would bunch up....what a mess!...just make sure the rubber cup goes into the tube equally and not cockeyed. I did away with the old hand pump style and went with the pistol grip style you squeeze ith your hand. they're alot easier....hope that helps

 

[robertrwalsh]

I have one that uses cartridges that insert into the gun. Seems to work just fine.

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

If I was still wrenching on cars I'd consider one of these cordless powered grease guns...

Bauer grease gun
Hercules grease gun

 

[kev74]

Sometimes there is a bleeder screw at the top near the pump mechanism. if you pull the screw, you can bleed the air out. Its going to be messy though! And the screw can be hard to put back while grease under spring pressure is being forced out.

There are some good youtube videos showing how to bleed the air as you load the cartridge.

 

[Rodan]

If I was still wrenching on cars I'd consider one of these cordless powered grease guns...

Bauer grease gun
Hercules grease gun

I have the Bauer, and it's very good. Waaaay better than a manual grease gun. Turned greasing the bearings on my trailer from an hour to a 20 minute job, and less messy.

 

[Oscar Zulu]

I feel your pain! I went trough a tube of grease every other day as a young man working on the family farm. It seems as often as not that would happen to me. Memory fuzzy, but smacking the tube before insertion to get the grease to the front seemed to help.
Frustrating…..

OZ

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

In the late 70's and early 80's, my brother and I had a small timbering company. Some of our equipment was brand new, and a few of the dozers and tracked high lifts were from in the early 60's (using 1940's and 50's designs and technologies) also everything was hydraulic and we didn't have any of the old cable powered bulldozers.

The grease fittings were not standardized and getting some of the hose ends for greasing the tracks was difficult back then. I can only imagine how hard they are to locate today.

For hard to access locations they had a "button headed" fitting about 3/4" across and about 1/8" thick that stood like a fat "T". That was on John Deere dozers, we had to order it in, and it took a few weeks back then! There used to also be a number of identical looking but slightly different diameter Zerks fittings that we had different grease guns for!

Most grease was interchangeable, but the hydraulic fluids were not! (Along the same idea as Ford and GM using different transmission fluids!) But we needed to keep a supply of all of them on hand and not mix them!)

Ivan

 

[Hairtrigger]

If I was still wrenching on cars I'd consider one of these cordless powered grease guns...

Bauer grease gun
Hercules grease gun

Very few grease zirks on modern vehicles

 

[robvious]

wow... did not think it would be an ACTUAL grease gun... I was ready for something completely different.. lol

 

[Texarkan]

Of all things, the grease gun I use at work has a hard time with one particular brand of grease cartridges. The piston won’t go into the tube. I just cut the tube open, load the grease into the grease gun barrel by hand, and proceed as normal. The grease gun primes better that way, and it only takes a few seconds longer to load the grease gun. Wear gloves though.