Grease Joint Rejuvenator

DoubleR

Well-known Member
Location
Mid Mi
I was looking at one yesterday at TSC for 49 bucks. It was made by Innovative Products in the USA no less. It looked like you put some penetrating oil or something similar in it, put it over the zerk and hit it with a hammer. It appears to open the froze grease zerk up. Looks like it could be kind of handy compared to a torch or zerk replacement. Has anyone used one? Is it a waste of money or does it really work?
 
I have little use for one.

Installing a new zerk will usually fix such problems.

Dean
 
Sometimes it's the zerk but sometimes it's the passage .When that happens you have to remove the zerk out to clean it.$49.00 buys a lot of zerks.JMO.
 
They don't work, most of the time. I pull the zerk, and spray kroil in the hole, and that gets most of the mildly frozen ones clear. Sometimes I put a pipe nipple and a cap on the fitting, and pour kroil in the nipple, and re cap. On one fitting, it took 6 weeks, to eat through the rust and crud.
 
They work pretty good. The ZerkZapper is good. The guy who sells them is on AgTalk and has given some tips on how to use them. #1 is use actual liquid oil not a spray can.
 
Warning!
I worked several years on heavy equipment and heating grease joints was common pratice until we were told about a man doing the same thing was killed when the joint got hot and the ball check which is in all the zerk fittings shot out and went into the guys heart! Take precautions!
 
(quoted from post at 11:10:08 05/11/13) Warning!
I worked several years on heavy equipment and heating grease joints was common pratice until we were told about a man doing the same thing was killed when the joint got hot and the ball check which is in all the zerk fittings shot out and went into the guys heart! Take precautions!

Had to be more things preceding that incident. That tiny little spring behind the ball check doesn't have the ability to make that happen.

Oxy/acetylene torch would be too hot, and probably destroy that spring. A small propane torch works very well. Just heat the zerk 'till the worms come out, put the grease gun on it and start pumping. If that doesn't work, remove the zerk, dig into that old grease with a pointy object, spray some penetrating oil in, install a new grease zerk, and start pumping.
 
The spring has nothing to do with the checkball shooting out. It is the expansion behind the check ball from the heat that caused the checkball to shoot out!
 
You could make one with some steel stock for little money.You will need a drill press to drill a straight 1/4 inch hole.Then make a plunger.I just change the fitting.5 cents each from a big jar full at a store I stop at.
 
Friend of mine was working on a backhoe, using a torch on the swing pin. it blew the complete fitting out and buried it in a wall stud. Thankfully it completely missed him.
 
When I worked in Ag Retail I saw one shoot out while the kid was heating it. It flew out with force. I must not have learned too much...I now stand to the side when heating them.
 
(quoted from post at 12:35:57 05/11/13) The spring has nothing to do with the checkball shooting out. It is the expansion behind the check ball from the heat that caused the checkball to shoot out!

Way too much heat. A small propane torch is all that is needed.
 
What I've seen most often is dried grease behind the zerk rather than a problem with the zerk itself. Typically I remove the zerk and dig out what crud I can with a tiny allen wrench. On something like a pillow block bearing, welding wire is handy to clear the passage around the bearing race.

This solves most of them; really nasty ones I squirt some carb or brake parts cleaner into the hole to dissolve the blockage.

Anthony
 
We use them all the time on the Boeing 767. A $49 tool is alot cheaper than a $1000 bearing that has the casting full of old grease between the zerk and bearing.
 
i have one and use it from time to time,i use ATF in mine and works well. just make sure you have safety glasses on when you hit it, some time if you are not square on the fitting it will squart to the side. i like it and found for the most part it does the job.
 

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