Any easy way to alleviate having to open up hand operated grease gun once or twice per using up one cartridge of grease in order to remove air which causes gun to pump like it is empty when it is not empty?
If yours has the grip on the end that you have to pull back against a spring to load it, then several in and out plunges to stir up the grease around the suction port will usually do the trick.
I put a metal ring around the plunger shaft, and hang the grease gun with the nozzle down when not in use.
I'm not sure it makes any difference, but I'm hoping that the grease will settle towards the pump assenbly at the tip. Which (when not in use) is the pump assembly at the bottom of the tube.
Don't know what kind of grease gun you have, but it is either no good or you are doing something wrong. Most guns have a plunger at the rear that puts pressure on the grease to move forward. When change the cartridge, you pull the plunger out (and lock it in a slot), you put the cartridge in, screw the top on, and release the plunger and push it in. The built in spring continues to push the grease forward. Perhaps the spring is broken or missing. The only purpose of the pump is to build pressure in the tube/hose before the coupling. If you can unscrew the top without loosing all the grease on the ground, then the plunger is not working.
No, there is nothing wrong with the gun or how he is operating it. It is a common problem with every gun I have had over the past 50 years. Pumping the plunger does help but doesn't cure it.
Maybe you are doing the same thing he does? I've never had that problem, either filling a gun with bulk grease or using a cartridge. If there are no air voids when filled, then voids can't develop.
Not in my experience, besides, the pressure on the grease would make any air move into the hose/tube.
Don't know what he means by pumping the plunger, but if he means the plunger at the rear end of the gun (not the handle used to squirt the grease), that would just stir ups the grease a little. You can't air lock a gun if the spring mechanism that pushes the grease forward is working correctly. Well, maybe you can air lock it if you really try or it is a piss poor excuse for a grease gun.
I'm not a professional grease monkey but took care of all my vehicles. Pulling the plunger back to compress the spring took a lot of muscles on every grease guns I used. I still vote for a wimpy spring.
i'm not for sure if this has been suggested yet, but my grease gun has a slotted cap at the top near the handle that i take off when i get air. i just crack it open until grease starts to come out. if i take it all the way off, i get a mess.
i've also worked with some guns that have a spring loaded ball bearing in place of the cap. this way you just push on it until the air comes out.
Well, guess your supplier does better, maybe... :)
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If it's all air, no grease forever, that's different...an occasional "whiff" on a stroke or two or three has been my experience since was first big enough to help w/ lube work on the farm. Then we loaded guns from bulk drum. No real difference now w/ cartridges except slight convenience that I can tell...
Like Harry, it has been my experience for over 50 years. Have 3 different brand guns now...same prob in all three. Two of them do have a screw (plug) at the top (end where grease exit tuibe is) the function of which I have no clue.
If it pumps w/o being on a zerk then likely the internal seals (o- rings) have finally worn out. If it won't do even that, guess would be the loading spring broke or is jammed...
Unless it is a quality gun probably just as well as to replace it as try the repair if it seals rather than a simple "ah-ha" on the spring/ loader...
Oh, of course there's also the outside chance you've got a really big air bubble and keeping pumping and all will heal itself or the even remoter chance you've got something foreign blocking the line I suppose...
If it does on occasion pump, yes, that sounds like air would be good possibility. Try pulling the plunger and release it again, trying to work the plunger down. Sometimes can compress or move the air pocket around and get it to clear more quickly...
On occasion I've gone so far as to take the tube back out and "massage" the grease in it to rid it of pockets in really bad cases.
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