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Easy way to account for all zerks when greasing equipment?

John Canfield

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I've got 75 hours on my Bobcat E42 mini-ex and have greased it quite a few times but I sometimes forget one or two zerks, almost did that today but caught my mistake. There are zerks all over the place especially near the stick end (it has a hydraulic thumb.)

I was thinking about counting the correct number of zerks and keeping count as I grease. Another idea is a using a drawing of where they are all located as I grease. Any better ideas?
 

Tags

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I always wipe the grease off the zerks before and after greasing, so if you have greased it, it will have a "blob" of fresh grease on the zerk just waiting to be wiped off, if it doesn't, it hasn't been greased......
 

Nige

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You could paint the areas with zerks or plumb up a centrally located manifold and grease everything from one location.
The issue I have with manifolds is that lines taking grease from the manifold to those hard-to-reach-places have a habit of failing and the grease doesn't go where it's supposed to. Even though it means more scrambling I'd prefer to get in there and grease a zerk just so I know the grease is going where it should.

Knowing the total number of zerks that you have to grease is always a good thing.

I've seen 2-3"-diameter "bulls eyes" of paint used to mark grease zerks. On a clean machine they stand out well. You need to select a colour that contrasts well with the colour of the machine for best results.
 

sfrs4

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Most newer machines will have a layout of the zerk locations on a sticker somewhere, or in the owners manual. Photo it, print it on A4, laminate it and pop it in the cab with a whiteboard marker, tick them off as you grease them, then wipe it clean for the next time once your done.
 

John Canfield

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Thanks for the good ideas guys. I know a lot of the vertical mills have a central grease point but that would be a bit complicated to implement on the mini-ex. Bobcat did bring out two central zerks for the turntable so I don't have to crawl underneath. I just rotate the house 90* and do three pumps, repeat.
Taking a picture of the grease diagram is a good idea (it's in the engine compartment) and printing/laminating a copy. I have some paint pens I can use to highlight most of the zerks.

'ppreciate the help!
 

kshansen

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Others have posted some good suggestions.

One I might add is to develop a standard pattern for how you grease. Say start at the ight front and go down that side then around the back and forward to the left front or some pattern like that.

And the more often you do grease the machine the more familiar with all the points you will get and have much less chance of over looking something.

One thing I liked doing but not always could get bosses to allow was greasing at the end of the shift. One reason is I felt it let you purge out any dirt or water that got in during the shift. Second the grease would flow in eaiser when machine and old grease was warm.

And the one that I really liked was if you give the machine a good hands on at the end of the shift you might find a problem that could be fixed before it was needed at 6:00AM in the morning!
 

John Canfield

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Having a greasing pattern to follow every time is a super idea and I recently started doing that, I start at the end of the boom nearest the cab and work forward from there. At the end of the stick there's some almost hidden zerks that are really easy to overlook, they get hidden when dirt sticks to the grease. These zerks are recessed and you have to know where to look to find them and unless the bucket curl is in the right orientation you can't even see them.

I rarely use the hoe more than two or three hours at a time so it's easy to forget when I greased it last. I was keeping track of tractor hours for the loader and when I greased the grapple attachment but that's not working for me. Maybe just grease everything once a month would be best.
 

kshansen

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I rarely use the hoe more than two or three hours at a time so it's easy to forget when I greased it last. I was keeping track of tractor hours for the loader and when I greased the grapple attachment but that's not working for me. Maybe just grease everything once a month would be best.

Well on a little used machine like that I might suggest taking a few minutes each time it is used to grease any points that are directly exposed to dirt and or water. More to flush out the crap that got in by using it. Then maybe once a month for everthing.

Five minutes of time and a tube or two of grease is a lot better than the price of a couple new pins and bushings!

I maybe cheap and lazy but would rather spend the money on grease and be a few minutes late to the fridge to grab a cold beer than replacing expensive parts.
 

Nige

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One I might add is to develop a standard pattern for how you grease. Say start at the ight front and go down that side then around the back and forward to the left front or some pattern like that.
That reminds me of a story from years ago in the Dark Continent. The factory operator trainer was showing new operators the greasing routine for some new graders just delivered to the custome. This was back in the day when operators were actually EXPECTED to grease their own machines. He stressed the need to be methodical and to go round the machine following a fixed route and hitting all the zerks on the way, keeping the grease gun clean, cleaning each zerk with a rag before & after greasing, etc, etc.

So when he got to the end of the demonstration he cleaned the grease gun one last time and replaced it in the machine tool box. As he walked away from the toolbox he realised that he had failed to grease a couple of points. So he apologized to the trainees, did a U-turn back to the toolbox, collected the grease gun, greased the last points, cleaned the grease gun again, and returned it to the toolbox.

A year later he went back to the same place and asked the operators to demonstrate their greasing procedure to him. Well you've probably already guessed it......... they greased the machine, put the grease gun back in the toolbox, walked away, did a U-turn back to the toolbox and grabbed the grease gun again, then greased the last couple of points. As he said afterwards, he didn't have the heart to tell them, plus the machine was getting fully greased so why complicate things..?
 

Cmark

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and that reminds me of an anecdote I was told about a group of engineers who were despatched abroad from a certain town in Lancashire to investigate a string of low hour truck engine failures. It was all a big mystery until one of the engineers went out on the road with a driver and found out that the section in the OMM reading "With a new engine, the oil must be drained at 1000 miles" was being diligently followed.
 

rsherril

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I took this thread to heart and began cleaning all the grease points on this old grader as I get ready to go again. There are 44 zerks and the circle contact areas (26 on the front end alone). As I haven't been good about cleaning off excess grease in the past, this took awhile. One zerk, inset into the yoke pin, was loose to the point of falling out when I was cleaning out the indent. Several on the steering and lean wheel rams are located in dark places and have given me grief in the past just hooking up to them. Acumulated grease and dirt compounded the problem. Much better now that I can see that shiny zerk. I'm actually looking forward to getting started today with the actual greasing. Will be sure to clean up any mess I make with excess grease after finishing. Lesson learned.
 

John C.

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Greasing is pretty easy now compared to the mechanical days. Just look for the machine joints and there will be a zerk. The machine in my avatar was a little more involved. Inside that house were what me and my brothers thought were countless fittings. All those linkages for brakes and clutches, all the support bearings on shafts, hook rollers, bottom rollers, front and rear idlers, line sheaves for the boom, point sheaves on the top of the boom and the bucket linkages. A case of cartridges would be mostly gone at one go through.
 

John Canfield

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Those are really funny stories, one of my nephews has a serious lack of common sense and I could easily imagine him draining oil at 1,000 miles or following that greasing routine.

I will admit I always have a good feeling after doing routine maintenance and greasing gets a person up close and personal with the equipment. A few months ago I sold my 18 year old Gravely zero turn mower and before the sale I went overboard getting it in good shape. I did a full 500 hour maintenance on it, replaced all of the belts, filters, fluids, cleaned the carb in my ultrasonic cleaner, etc, etc. I even machined a new bushing and pin for the anti-scalp roller. Dear wife thought I was crazy but I sold it to a really nice guy.
 
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