Great Greasing!

I don't grease my hoe as often as I should and no way would I ever do it daily. In the past it would begin to squeak or squawk before I would get around to it. November of last year I ordered a case of Amalie Pro Tac+ with 5% Moly. This stuff is far better than the off the shelf moly grease I was using. It seems to remain in place and protect better. I have only greased the machine 3 or 4 times since getting it and have never heard a squeak. It seems like most of the fittings take less pumping before it emerges around the pivots or joints but I still go through a couple of tubes each time.

I've had one fitting that would never take grease and it really worried me because it was the bottom swing pivot for the boom. I would always try and would end up prying the coupling off because it would become stuck from the back pressure. I kept thinking I would buy or build one of those things to hammer some penetrating fluid into it and try to get it open but never did. Today when I got to that fitting I had just changed the grease tube. I hooked the coupling on and pulled the trigger. The DeWalt pumped up then grunted, pushed a little grease out of the relief then then started pumping normal. Low and behold the pivot started taking grease which is a huge relief.

I still have a ball joint fitting that won't take grease so the penetrant pounder may yet be in my future. I have removed the fitting and made sure it was open which they always are. The problem is a deeper restriction.

A lot of times it helps to remove the zerk and drill all the crap out of the hole, without damaging the threads.

Tinkerer said:

A lot of times it helps to remove the zerk and drill all the crap out of the hole, without damaging the threads.

Click to expand...

Any time I've had one that wouldn't take grease I remove the fitting and dig the hole out with a scribe. Never actually found it to be a clogged fitting. Sometimes it's having a pin in a bind on the fitting but most of the time it's just too rusty or gunked up inside. I have had some luck with putting a load on the opposite side of the pin and other times just being persistent and trying it again after some use. Sometimes you just have to beat stuff apart and clean it out though.

What I've found on my machine is if I
Curl backhoe bucket in so it sits flat on the bottom
Extend the crowd boom and lower it so it’s stretched out fully
Curl loader bucket forward facing down
Put both buckets and stabilizers on the ground lightly with no down force.
This allows all fittings to be accessible with no pressure on them. Finally I lift the stabilizers up straight to get to the foot pivots.

Don’t forget the ball joints and U-joints

I've always said grease is the cheapest maintenance item you can buy so don't worry about greasing too often.
Mike

But I have 2 line boring systems. That grease that pushes the steel out has made me a lot of money over the years.

A guy at a driveshaft shop told me one time I had a grease worm problem in my splined slip joint and they had eaten all the grease out.

The local HE shop told me to remove the zerk then heat the joint. Important to remove the zerk since the expanding grease can build dangerous pressure. Getting splattered with hot grease will leave a mark. Then reinstall the zerk and pump the grease in. The idea is the heat melts the old grease and the new grease forces it out. Worked for me on a swing tower joint.