Every time I grab my grease gun, I have to spend a half hour figuring out why it will not work. I'll get a couple fittings greased and then nothing. Plenty of grease but for some reason it looses its prime.
Does a trouble free grease gun exist?
Help this grease monkey get grease.
Air bubbles. You are trying to compress air instead of grease. Modern grease tubes are notorious for air bubbles.
I drill a very small hole in the head where it threads into the body about halfway down the threaded area. Back off the tube just till it kisses the hole and a little blob of grease comes out, then quickly tighten it back up.
On top of air bubbles, you could have fittings that are blocked by dirt and crap.
Many good guns have a bleeder screw at the top to bleed the air out.
Having run thousands of cartridges through hundreds of guns, here is what I do: pull the plunger, drop the cartridge in, and thread the head on just enough to keep it attached. Then release the plunger, and then tighten the head up. Unless its a garbage Chinese gun that will always do the job. No priming necessary because all the air is forced out through the loose threads.
In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :
What is a good brand of grease gun?
Though I don't use it enough to justify the cost, this is the closest I've found to a no mess grease gun.
You might want to store it upside down so it doesn't lose its prime.
In reply to rustybugkiller :
I usually buy or have used Lincolns. They are the ones in the tool box of pretty much every machine I am asked to run. I ran excavators for a year and a half during covid and they bought me one from Walmart which I threw away, and then they gave the whole fleet Milwaukee electrics which were awesome. But too pricey for just having around the shop for the occasional lawnmower service.
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