Zerks - Montana Owners Club

Foldbak · 05-10-2023, 07:48 PM

I was doing a pre-trip and good news is all the lugs were tight. Bad news is 50% of the wet bolt zerks won't take grease. They're only 1.5 years old and have been greased about 4 months ago. I'm thinking about raising the rig so the axles hang and try again. I could remove the zerks and spray penetrating oil in the pin holes. Maybe some heat? I know I can't heat the equalizers because or the rubber cushions. Any suggestions for a quick fix? Leaving Friday for a short trip to the beach and don't have time to replace the bolts. Anyone ever use a zerk hammer?

Daryles · 05-10-2023, 08:09 PM

Yes, jacking and taking some weight off the wheels can help.
Also try gently pumping and tapping the nut side with a hammer at the same time. The shock from the hammer might be enough to break the clog loose.
Be careful not to hit the threads of the bolt.

Foldbak · 05-11-2023, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daryles

Yes, jacking and taking some weight off the wheels can help.
Also try gently pumping and tapping the nut side with a hammer at the same time. The shock from the hammer might be enough to break the clog loose.
Be careful not to hit the threads of the bolt.

Not an actual hammer

. One of these contraptions.
https://www.grainger.com/product/3AP...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

182flyer · 05-11-2023, 09:44 AM

2022 295RL: just washed/waxed and repacked wheel bearings for 3,500 mile pre-trip. Tried greasing wet bolts and only 3 on each side took grease. Our wheels are totally in the air and I used small "actual" hammer to tap while heavy grease gun pressure=two people and no go. Not my first rodeo. Started to remove center spring hanger bolt but frame/spring hanger alignment is somewhat crooked and lifting or lowering coach did nothing; so, putting back together and will watch on trip and remove all offending wet bolts in July or August when home again. BTW: after just shy of 15,000 miles the OEM brakes (magnet and drums/liners) "mic'ed" near new= less than 10% wear.

182flyer · 05-11-2023, 09:48 AM

Forgot to mention: 2022 295RL OEM brakes- last June in Seattle while leaving 3 complete truck/trailer lengths in front of me traffic emergency stop and I locked up trailer brakes; truck has ABS. First time this ever happened to me so happy to know the OEM brakes worked very good.

77cruiser · 05-11-2023, 10:33 AM

You can't just tap it if it's clogged, you have to get pissed & hit it like you want to break it. Or heat.

182flyer · 05-11-2023, 11:03 AM

My tapping is holding a socket (over the zerk) with vise grips (no finger smashing) and using a 3 lb sledge with short (8") strokes do to confinement. Dealt with a few caterpillars over the years.

Can't use heat: rubber shear springs. Remove/replace at later date and then grease more often.

Thanks for opinions. Never too old to learn something.

77cruiser · 05-11-2023, 11:18 AM

Hit here.

RRman · 05-17-2023, 10:18 PM

When my 05 was about 5 years old I had a shop replace the plastic bearings with greasable bearings and had them give me the old plastic bearings which WERE in great shape despite all the warnings...

Since then usually only a few ever take grease and some have had the zerks broken off by the Joyrider suspension upgrade Shock Absorbers. (Thanks for the rough roads State HWY depts!)

So I just hold the Infrared Thermometer around them during our travel stops (along with the Hubs) and no discernable overheating and no failures to date.

And that's because I lost an Entire Wheel with Tire and most of the Brake Assembly once after I gave up the Thermometer Testing when they never had issues for a few years...

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Foldbak · 05-25-2023, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 182flyer

2022 295RL: just washed/waxed and repacked wheel bearings for 3,500 mile pre-trip. Tried greasing wet bolts and only 3 on each side took grease. Our wheels are totally in the air and I used small "actual" hammer to tap while heavy grease gun pressure=two people and no go. Not my first rodeo. Started to remove center spring hanger bolt but frame/spring hanger alignment is somewhat crooked and lifting or lowering coach did nothing; so, putting back together and will watch on trip and remove all offending wet bolts in July or August when home again. BTW: after just shy of 15,000 miles the OEM brakes (magnet and drums/liners) "mic'ed" near new= less than 10% wear.

What do you have your brake controller set at? Mine's at 6.5.

182flyer · 05-26-2023, 06:05 PM

Foldback: I set ours on 4.5; any more and our 5er brakes get very touchy. We, wife/I are nearly paranoid with leaving extra room and coasting as much as possible when needing to slow. We (wife also pulled 15-20K lb trailers in our construction business as well) have had a very good safety record over the several decades dealing with questionable drivers on our highways from ME to MT to TX.
Jack

Foldbak · 06-10-2023, 04:16 PM

My rig is in the dealership. Their going to replace the 6 wet bolts not taking grease and repack, inspect the wheel bearing and backing plate nuts. $700 including parts. I have a good relationship with the service manager. I pick up next week. Fingers crossed.

dadnjesse · 06-12-2023, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Foldbak

Not an actual hammer

. One of these contraptions.
https://www.grainger.com/product/3AP...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

I used one of these just this week as my wet bolts wouldn't take grease and it actually worked for me.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Foldbak · 06-13-2023, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dadnjesse

I used one of these just this week as my wet bolts wouldn't take grease and it actually worked for me.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I was going to try that. But I'm not even sure that the bolts are installed correctly. Their timed between 1 and 3 for the hole to lineup. I need peace of mind.

rohrmann · 06-13-2023, 10:29 AM

Those devices work great if the clog is in the zerk fitting, but you have almost 2 inches of grease passage, including a 90 degree turn in the middle of the bolt and if the grease has hardened up in the passage, your only choices are removal and either clean out the passage in the bolt or replacement. Going back in with the bolts, the exit hole in the bolt should be at the 3 or 9 o'clock position so there is less pressure on that exit hole so grease can get out. Dexter recommends greasing the wet bolts every 3,000 miles and I would suggest every 3 months just to keep fresh grease in the bolts.

77cruiser · 06-13-2023, 02:41 PM

^^^ Yup if you have problems usually you're not greasing often enough. We would do gravel trucks 2X a week & logging trucks once a week.

Foldbak · 06-13-2023, 06:44 PM

I've hit the zerks 3 times in 15 months. That's every 5 months or every 1666 miles. My bet is that the pins are misaligned or they didn't use lithium grease at the factory. I always use lithium which isn't compatible with polyurea grease which would case it to harden if mixed. All I know is going forward I'll be hitting them before every trip out.

AZMont · 06-14-2023, 08:25 AM

My only add here would be to use a 10,000 psi grease gun. That seems to work for me. I also lift the rig off the wheels before I grease the zerk fittings. I read that putting 90 degree zerks in eliminates the need to remove the tires. That is my next project. I recently replaced my wet bolts and CR1000 and discovered that my copper bushings had deteriorated. I didn't install the new wet bolts with the zerks facing inward because I would rather not crawl under the rig to grease the wet bolts. But, some prefer this approach. I purchase my monty used and it was obvious the previous owner had not greased the wet bolts enough. I also grease the wheel bearings whenever I do the wet bolts via the Dexter ez-lube zerks as well.

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