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Author	Topic: Is your present car equiped with zerk fittings?	Post a Reply Back to Topics

wizzo Champion Author Detroit Posts:3,490 Points:624,920 Joined:Jul 2006	Message Posted: May 6, 2012 11:36:07 AM Ignore wizzo Report Abuse Is your present car equiped with zerk fittings?

wizzo

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Detroit

Posts:3,490
Points:624,920
Joined:Jul 2006

Message Posted: May 6, 2012 11:36:07 AM

Ignore wizzo Report Abuse

Is your present car equiped with zerk fittings?

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BartandLisa Champion Author Newfoundland Posts:2,155 Points:421,350 Joined:Feb 2012	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 8:05:51 PM Ignore BartandLisa Report Abuse Very few grease nipples on either of them. I check the rubber boots on all joints, links, etc and if they begin to "go flat" after a few years, use a needle attachment on a grease gun to add a little high quality solid lubricant. Even sealed parts can't last forever, especially if there wasn't enough grease in there to begin with.
notti74 Champion Author New Hampshire Posts:1,939 Points:568,670 Joined:Sep 2005	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 6:59:37 PM Ignore notti74 Report Abuse Yes
Titanic1985 Champion Author South Carolina Posts:6,291 Points:360,345 Joined:Dec 2010	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 6:32:13 PM Ignore Titanic1985 Report Abuse BroadwayJoeFYM asked a valid question which should have been explained in the Topic -- What is a Zerk fitting? I found an article on Wickepedia with a picture. The Zerk fitting was designed in 1929 by Oscar Zerk (no surprise there). Zerk Grease Fitting
streetcars Champion Author Toledo Posts:12,279 Points:2,609,565 Joined:Apr 2005	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 5:34:45 PM Ignore streetcars Report Abuse yuuup
Titanic1985 Champion Author South Carolina Posts:6,291 Points:360,345 Joined:Dec 2010	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 4:05:26 PM Ignore Titanic1985 Report Abuse Hi Hemond. Your vehicles have done exceedingly well. I'm not quite sure if it is related to your driving habits, good roads, etc. I also appreciate your candor regarding the boot surrounding your CV joints. That could actually be another Topic. Originally, you couldn't get the boot -- only the entire assembly. That rubber boot takes a beating as it is related to steering on front wheel drive vehicles. It is an item that vehicle owners should inspect on a regular basis, as you did. Once the dirt get in, you must replace the entire assembly. Back to the zerk topic. You've mentioned two vehicles which are considered cars and are relatively light in weight. In an ideal environment (e.g. good roads, good driving habits, etc.) what you say can be true. Some of the vehicles mentioned here (I wish there were more information) are heavier such as SUVs and Light Trucks. They also have large engines which bear a greater amount of weight on the front end. Add to that road conditions. Where I live, most of the roads are dirt/clay full of holes, ruts and uneven road surfaces. UPS trucks cannot keep front-ends on their vehicles here (including their newer smaller trucks). My company had thousands of fleet vehicles in what could be considered "severe service". We had many brands of vehicles and each exibited failures differently. Having many vehicles of the same type showed up their design flaws. I'm glad you have had such success with your vehicles, but I do not think that is the norm for many owners. This Topic doesn't allow further discussion on this.
wlotocky All-Star Author Florida Posts:810 Points:205,135 Joined:May 2010	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 2:53:24 PM Ignore wlotocky Report Abuse no
pacecar68 Champion Author Oakland Posts:4,666 Points:868,070 Joined:Jan 2007	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 2:09:16 PM Ignore pacecar68 Report Abuse no.
Hemond Champion Author Providence Posts:8,204 Points:133,745 Joined:Oct 2006	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 12:25:20 PM Ignore Hemond Report Abuse Well, my current Corolla has 190,000 miles and never has had a failure of a sealed component. All original CV joints, front end joints, drive parts, wheel bearings, and suspension components. Before that my Chevy Beretta was the same. Never had a sealed component fail. 150,000 miles. I did have the CV boots split though. The front end shop gave me a choice. A new joint for $135 or a new seal for $85. He said the joint was not damaged and recommended just doing the seal. I did. Worked great. Sealed components are a major advance and I tip my hat to whoever came up with the idea. They work great.
Titanic1985 Champion Author South Carolina Posts:6,291 Points:360,345 Joined:Dec 2010	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 10:40:01 AM Ignore Titanic1985 Report Abuse Hello wizzo. To clarify your post, a zerk fitting is commonly known as a grease fitting used on vehicles, farm equipment, lawn tractors, etc. to allow grease to be applied by a greasegun with a matching nozzle to an area that requires lubrication. Zerk fittings have virtually, in the automotive area, gone the way of the dinosaur. Vehicles are being sold with as little maintenance as possible these days. Is that good news? Are you better off without being able to lubricate a vehicle? In my opinion, having worked in a garage, the answer is no to both questions. Many of todays common failures are related to the inability to apply grease where needed. As far back as 1964 most vehicles had zerk fittings on just about every moving part (e.g. U-joints, king pins, tie rod ends, control arms, ball joints, water pumps, clutch cross member shafts, idler arms, etc.) and failures were usually due to not greasing these parts on a scheduled basis, using the wrong type of grease, applying too much grease and rupturing the rubber boots thus allowing contaminates (e.g. dirt, sand, etc.) to enter in or just plain old wear and tear. Things began to change and the number of zerk fittings were greatly reduced usually to places like ball joints and tie rod ends. The newer vehicles didn't have these fittings or had a plug (Japanese vehicles began using plugs which had to be unscrewed and a special adapter to the grease gun had to be used or zerk fittings added to replace the plugs). The fault of the plug was before you could put it back in, some of the grease you applied came out. It was also more labor intensive, thus more expensive to lubricate a vehicle. I always recommended to the customer to replace the plugs with zerk fittings. Future lubrications were cheaper and your fitting was sealed. Today, it is rare to find a vehicle with zerk fittings on it. You now have many more front-end component failures such as tie rod ends, ball joints, etc. because you cannot lubricate them. I would like to acknowledge a few GBs comments and or questions: Can you add zerk fittings? Some replacement parts do come with the fittings and others do not. It does make sense to include them, but over 20 years have passed since they were widely used and people would not think about greasing one or two zerk fittings. The plugs previously mentioned have also been eliminated. It is not a good idea to drill a component and tap it to put in a zerk fitting, unless you can disassemble the component (e.g. a clutch shaft) due to the likelyhood of metal fragments from drilling entering into the greased area. Component failure will ensue. ricebike mentioned puncturing a rubber boot and injecting grease. This, on the surface, seems to be a good idea, but the hole left is not self-sealing and could allow contaminates to enter in. Repeated use of this method can increasingly enlarge the opening. In ricebike's case, I know he knows what he is doing, but I would not recommend it to others. As a sidebar note, the main cause of CVC joint failures in today's front-wheel drive vehicles is a rupturing of the rubber boot allowing contaminates to mix with the grease & cause premature failure. AskMeLater has answered the lifetime lube question precisely. The new components without the zerk fittings will fail and will be expensive to replace. They are extremely labor intensive. Take a tie rod or ball joint for example. Both of these components wear slowly and cause tires to wear unevenly. Once replaced, the vehicle requires a front-end alignment, which varies from $59 to ? depending on if it is a two wheel or four wheel alignment. My take is that the elimation of the zerk fittings has cost the vehicle owner billions of dollars in parts and labor. When I worked in the garage, a lube job cost $1.75 (1968-1969) and usually was part of an oil change. Compare that to tearing down an entire front-end of a vehicle or dropping a rear wheel drive drive shaft to replace the U-joints. In closing, I still own my hand held greasegun used in the garage and use it on my lawn tractor. I used a pneunatic (e.g. compressed air) grease gun for most fittings in the garage. Elimination of the zerk fittings, in my opinion, was a costly mistake for consumers, but it rendered huge profits for the auto manufactures. I do hope this post enlightens you GBs. Thank you :-) . [Edited by: Titanic1985 at 5/10/2012 10:43:18 AM EST]
geobmw Champion Author Miami Posts:6,196 Points:1,406,120 Joined:May 2008	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 8:51:02 AM Ignore geobmw Report Abuse i don't know
BT1288 Champion Author Lincoln Posts:22,115 Points:1,425,335 Joined:May 2009	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 8:31:58 AM Ignore BT1288 Report Abuse My U-joints have them.
ricebike Champion Author New Jersey Posts:10,043 Points:1,857,670 Joined:Oct 2005	Message Posted: May 10, 2012 1:09:32 AM Ignore ricebike Report Abuse no but i have a needle attachment for my grease gun to add to the "sealed" boots of the ball joints/ tie rod ends... click on this link for more info
petromonitor Champion Author Toronto Posts:2,387 Points:520,630 Joined:Nov 2011	Message Posted: May 9, 2012 4:51:54 PM Ignore petromonitor Report Abuse no
MikeyP8 Champion Author Massachusetts Posts:1,082 Points:292,315 Joined:Apr 2012	Message Posted: May 9, 2012 3:02:16 PM Ignore MikeyP8 Report Abuse yupp
eccerr0r All-Star Author Fort Collins Posts:993 Points:596,530 Joined:Apr 2011	Message Posted: May 9, 2012 2:37:07 PM Ignore eccerr0r Report Abuse ahh... another item that seems to be going the way of the dodo... My Jeep has zerk fittings but my newer Subaru does not, having "lifetime" sealed joints...
jimmy544 Champion Author Boston Posts:4,133 Points:655,805 Joined:Feb 2011	Message Posted: May 9, 2012 12:12:35 PM Ignore jimmy544 Report Abuse Yes. 1994 Buick Le Saber there are two at each wheel. the ball joints on the front wheels and the analogous joints on the rear wheels that allow for 4 wheel alignment.
Timberline Champion Author West Virginia Posts:2,509 Points:764,385 Joined:May 2006	Message Posted: May 9, 2012 12:06:05 PM Ignore Timberline Report Abuse Yes, two.
rkain Champion Author Fort Worth Posts:8,451 Points:1,738,215 Joined:Oct 2007	Message Posted: May 8, 2012 1:33:29 AM Ignore rkain Report Abuse no
probedude2 Champion Author Akron Posts:12,568 Points:2,383,130 Joined:Jun 2003	Message Posted: May 8, 2012 1:22:54 AM Ignore probedude2 Report Abuse zerk...
Moe86 Champion Author Ontario Posts:12,320 Points:1,301,925 Joined:Jun 2009	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 10:03:48 PM Ignore Moe86 Report Abuse No.
Moe86 Champion Author Ontario Posts:12,320 Points:1,301,925 Joined:Jun 2009	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 10:03:36 PM Ignore Moe86 Report Abuse No.
DVMC Champion Author Chicago Posts:2,348 Points:1,795,995 Joined:Jun 2006	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 9:51:05 PM Ignore DVMC Report Abuse yes
DVMC Champion Author Chicago Posts:2,348 Points:1,795,995 Joined:Jun 2006	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 9:50:54 PM Ignore DVMC Report Abuse yes
RickF350 Champion Author Washington Posts:3,421 Points:705,940 Joined:Apr 2008	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 8:40:32 PM Ignore RickF350 Report Abuse My truck has two.
mingaa57 All-Star Author St. Louis Posts:733 Points:319,215 Joined:May 2011	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 6:48:04 PM Ignore mingaa57 Report Abuse I wish.
RacerGene Champion Author Alabama Posts:1,703 Points:366,225 Joined:Jan 2012	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 10:19:00 AM Ignore RacerGene Report Abuse not many
kellyoneal Champion Author Louisville Posts:2,425 Points:706,765 Joined:Mar 2011	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 9:20:12 AM Ignore kellyoneal Report Abuse no
retcap201 Champion Author Austin Posts:5,838 Points:1,325,080 Joined:Mar 2005	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 9:13:15 AM Ignore retcap201 Report Abuse yes
bluenvoy Champion Author Nashville Posts:14,985 Points:1,878,615 Joined:Oct 2005	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 9:12:19 AM Ignore bluenvoy Report Abuse Yes but not as many as thee used to be.
OceanArcher Champion Author Mississippi Posts:5,718 Points:1,330,325 Joined:May 2004	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 9:02:09 AM Ignore OceanArcher Report Abuse A zerk fitting is a connection point that you can inject heavy-weight grease into a ball and socket type joint. As far as retrofitting on newer cars, I frankly don't know, but it would be interesting to find out ...
bustermoves Champion Author Fort Worth Posts:3,470 Points:690,625 Joined:Apr 2010	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 5:40:34 AM Ignore bustermoves Report Abuse havent looked,but will say yes.
BroadwayJoeFYVM Rookie Author Nevada Posts:16 Points:985 Joined:Nov 2008	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 5:00:31 AM Ignore BroadwayJoeFYVM Report Abuse This will only show my crashing ignorance, but what the hell are zerk fittings?
jes Champion Author Pennsylvania Posts:16,180 Points:3,355,400 Joined:Jun 2003	Message Posted: May 7, 2012 4:58:45 AM Ignore jes Report Abuse No, but my '83 Toyota truck has them.
jimmy544 Champion Author Boston Posts:4,133 Points:655,805 Joined:Feb 2011	Message Posted: May 6, 2012 10:45:33 PM Ignore jimmy544 Report Abuse My 1994 Buick is and the older Volvos I have don't have many of them.
sweeteddy Champion Author Indianapolis Posts:3,639 Points:1,705,495 Joined:Aug 2006	Message Posted: May 6, 2012 9:55:36 PM Ignore sweeteddy Report Abuse no
Moe86 Champion Author Ontario Posts:12,320 Points:1,301,925 Joined:Jun 2009	Message Posted: May 6, 2012 4:42:23 PM Ignore Moe86 Report Abuse No.
pogo19 Champion Author Twin Cities Posts:2,001 Points:1,100,200 Joined:Jul 2008	Message Posted: May 6, 2012 4:17:09 PM Ignore pogo19 Report Abuse nope
PatAZ Champion Author Tucson Posts:9,253 Points:122,460 Joined:May 2008	Message Posted: May 6, 2012 2:32:56 PM Ignore PatAZ Report Abuse Neither one is. [Edited by: PatAZ at 5/6/2012 2:32:43 PM EST]
bmsgolf Champion Author Amarillo Posts:2,057 Points:456,205 Joined:May 2011	Message Posted: May 6, 2012 2:08:32 PM Ignore bmsgolf Report Abuse Those are a thing of the past on most new cars.
AskMeLater Champion Author Amarillo Posts:1,999 Points:580,595 Joined:Jul 2005	Message Posted: May 6, 2012 2:08:31 PM Ignore AskMeLater Report Abuse By the way, my 2003 Lincoln Town Car does not have grease fittings. I'm set for life! :)
AskMeLater Champion Author Amarillo Posts:1,999 Points:580,595 Joined:Jul 2005	Message Posted: May 6, 2012 2:07:46 PM Ignore AskMeLater Report Abuse Actually, OceanArcher, when they talk about a part being "lubed for life", they are referring to the life of the part itself, not the life of the vehicle. It's trickery on the part of the parts sellers. When they tell you that something is "lubed for life", most people reasonably assume that it will last THEIR lifetime, or the lifetime of the vehicle, when all they really mean is that the part will stay lubed for as long a the part is in good, usable condition. I'd like to see tire manufacturers try that tactic... "So, what's the warranty on these tires?" "These tires are warranted for life against loss of tread" "Really? As long as I own these tires you guarantee that they will have tread on them?" "No. As long as the tires have tread on them, we guarantee that they will have tread on them!"
2011370Z Champion Author Phoenix Posts:5,983 Points:685,030 Joined:Apr 2011	Message Posted: May 6, 2012 1:20:30 PM Ignore 2011370Z Report Abuse I believe you can add after market zerk fittings.
OceanArcher Champion Author Mississippi Posts:5,718 Points:1,330,325 Joined:May 2004	Message Posted: May 6, 2012 1:00:29 PM Ignore OceanArcher Report Abuse No - all those joints that required occasional application of heavy weight grease are now "factory sealed" and are supposed to last the life of the car. Frankly, I don't believe it .......