Broken Zerks Fitting On Rear Leaf Shackle

I was greasing the zerks on my driver side rear leaf shackle & couldn't remove the grease gun from the fitting. Tried everything & still couldn't get it. After about 20 minutes of finess i decided that the only way it was coming off was gonna be brute strength. I was right; however the damn Zerk came off with it. now i need to replace it. any write ups on this issue? if not please advise.

 

Depends on the zerk.....it could be a screw-in or a push-in type.

I've seen this happen a lot at work...and in most cases, they break after the zerk head. It leaves a small metal donut in the hole.

But since you can't really tell what type it is..... get a small EASY-OUT Screw extractor. Small enough that it'll sink in that hole atleast 1/8" or more. This should be able to remove both types - use an 'unscrewing' motion to pull it out.

When you remove the piece, take a look at it. Does it have threads on it?
This will tell you what type (threaded or press-in) to buy.

Good Luck

 

Thanx. Just bought an easy out tool. Gonna take care of it right away. Man that's been bothering me since it happened.

 

I broke one off my OME shackles and it left part inside the threaded hole. It wasnt seized in there so it came out easily. Then I just went to the local parts store and matched one up. Wasnt a big deal, cost like 10 cents for a new zerk.

Most grease guns can be adjusted for different sized zerks by twisting the end. Sounds like yours is just a bit too tight.