WTF is wrong with my grease gun??

Hey guys. So I just bought a brand new "Performance Tools" pistol grip grease gun last night. Seems like a fairly straight-forward standard grease gun to me. Seems like it came with the necessary fittings to allow me to grease my drivelines/U-joints.
For some reason though, when I attempt to put it on my zerks, it doesn't seem to wanna go on all the way no matter how hard I push on it. There is a tip that I can unscrew and when it is unscrewed, it actually does fit on my zerks. But as soon as it's mounted back on the grease gun, it goes back to not wanting to fit. WTF? When I take the tip off and put it on the zerk by itself I notice a little spring pops out the bottom of it. It seems like that spring prevents it from going on when its attached to the gun. Either that, or the tip is somehow adjustable and I haven't figured out how to adjust it. The little instruction manual doesn't say a thing about any of this, so I was hoping someone on here could drop a little knowledge.
The poor girl hasn't been greased for a few years. I keep up on all my routine maintenance but I have neglected to grease those fittings. So now I am trying to change that. I have a 500 mile drive coming up in 5 days so I would like to figure it out before then if possible.....any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks

 

Sometimes it helps to put the coupler on at an angle then straighten it before pumping.

FWIW I returned a performance tools grease gun and (unrelated) fluid pump. Both tools were complete PsOS.

 

I have the 'nice' version of the PT tools grease gun (the one with red metal) and I had the same problem. What it is is that you need to adjust the hole on the end of the hose, there should be a little nub toward the opening of the hose where it meets the nipple. Screw out this nub a little until the hose clamps down on the grease nipple.Basically what youre doing is making the receptacle hole on the hose larger so the grease nipple can fit in there. Its sucks because this is no where in the directions.

 

Yeah that makes sense and I did sorta try that but nothing I did would get it to go on. I even took one of the zerks completely off one of the yokes and cleaned it out thinking maybe the zerk was clogged but it didn't help one bit.

Haha well this grease gun seems decent for what I need it for, if I could figure out how to work it. Thanks for the input!

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm a bit confused on what you are referring to as the nipple tho. Are you referring to the zerk, or something on the grease gun called a nipple? I was lookin at it and couldn't really tell how I could adjust it. There are 2 pieces that screw on to the end of the hose. Do both pieces need to be assembled onto the hose when you adjust it? Also, do you need to use a tool to adjust?
Sorry for all the questions! I appreciate your help. I would love to figure this thing out ASAP so I can grease this stuff before this Friday

 

Sorry bro - Ill get you a photo later tonight or tomorrow. When I say nipple, I mean zerk fitting on the ball joint or tie rod, whatever. At the end of the hose from your grease gun, where it is supposed to slide on the zerk fitting, there should be a 'collar' that you can rotate in or out. This collar will allow you to make the hole inside the hose bigger or smaller. Make it slightly bigger until it slides on the zerk fittting. Basically, what Im saying is twist the metal part at the end of the hose, it should screw out.

 

a needle greaser works great

 

Yeah I've been tryin to research this issue online and I keep reading different things about it. I figured you meant zerk when you said nipple, was just clarifying.
On the end of my hose there is a coupler that should lock onto the zerk. There are 3 black inserts inside of the tip and beneath those inserts there is a spring mechanism. Another piece screws onto this coupler, and together those 2 pieces screw onto the hose. When I take that coupler apart I cant see how it can be adjusted.
I kinda see what you're saying in your last sentence. I think I tried that last night. I unscrewed the coupling a bit to release some of the pressure from that spring and it seemed to go on the zerk, but when I pumped the gun the grease just oozed out the threads from where I had unscrewed the coupler, which makes sense since it was partially unscrewed. It seemed near impossible to screw the coupler back onto the hose once the coupler (by itself) was mounted to the zerk. Hopefully my descriptions are making sense haha. I really appreciate your responses man! This problem is annoying the hell out of me because this isn't the first time ive greased something, not even the first time ive greased this truck. Could the problem be simply that my gun is brand new so the coupler is incredibly stiff?

 

I may need to look into trying that. Also, FWIW, I did unscrew one of those zerks and it didn't seem clogged. The ball moved in and out freely and I sprayed some cleaner solution inside it just in case. If only I could get this gun to mount to the damn zerks...

 

With my grease gun (of unknown quality/brand), it takes a non-trivial effort to 'pop' the gun-end over the zerk fitting. Then, I sometimes need a flat-head screwdriver to pry it back off when done.

Annoying, but thats what it takes for me. A better quality gun might be easier.

 

OK, hopefully this will give you a better idea of what Im talking about:



So you see where my finger is pointing right at the end of the hose? If I rotate that portion 'out' the hole in the end of the hose will get bigger, if I tighten it 'in' it will get smaller. Using that method, I can adjust the hose so it fits snugly on the zerk fitting.

 

Well, it worked! I appreciate your help! I feel stupid for not figuring it out on my own in the first place. But if the instructions said that the coupler is adjustable that could have helped a bit. I guess the other grease guns I have used either weren't adjustable or they were just adjusted so that they went right on and didn't leak either.
All I had to do was rotate the end piece of the "2 piece coupler" maybe 1/4 turn if that and it went right on. I was pretty much able to find a happy medium adjustment so that it would go on tight enough to not leak too. It did leak a bit from the portion right below your index finger in the picture. I tightened it up with a couple wrenches but I am afraid to over tighten it and strip out those threads. I suppose a better quality gun would work too. Not a big deal though because I will only be using this thing every oil change or every other to lube my drivelines.
Again, I appreciate you taking the time to help! It's cool how people on this forum give advice to complete strangers that are just trying to work on their Tacomas!!

 

Yeah man, no worries. I've had way more than my share of help given to me. Glad to help when I can.