I've got several grease guns at work. All the same design. Regular hand pump guns. Problem is alot of them don't work. You load in a new grease tube and she'll pump maybe half the grease then stop working. What can I do to rectify the situation? I'm tired of wasting half of the grease.

 

I bought good used american made grease guns at garage sales and they work great the old Harbor freights are sitting it the dirtl

 

I ran into this problem the past weekend doing maintanence to a backhoe on the side of the road in 15 degree weather so started the truck up and put the gun in the exhaust to warm it up and worked great again.

 

Do you know how to bleed the air out of them? The next time one quits, unscrew the barrel about 1.5 turns and pump the handle a few times. Once you start getting grease again, screw the barrel back in and pump away.

 

Tried that and found that the follower (if that's what it's called) was all the way forward so there is no pressure on the grease...? All the grease was behind it toward the back of the cylinder.

 

There is usually a rubber gasket, slightly larger than the metal follower that rides on the follower. It's probably missing or torn.

 

Thanks... that's it... torn rubber.... darn it.....

 

Is that why you have so many greese guns lying on the ground because of a torn rubber?????

 

Bwaaaahaaaa Good one spooler!

 

I tossed out all the pump style ones where i work and got one of the cordless one (12v) best money I ever spent!! uses every last drop of grease. and the guys love it, maybe Santa will get me one for home some day!?

 

We've had them all. Hand pump, lever pump, air guns, even the ones that fit in the barrel of grease. None of them are as handy as the cordless. We bought the Snap-On (blue point) gun first. When it broke (got dropped) we replaced it with the cheaper Lincoln (exact same gun, imagine that) Air guns work good until the hose gets caught on somthing or you drag it through the grease and cover yourself with it.

 

Man, I'm so glad to find this thread! I'm a helicopter mechanic for one of the hospitals in our area and we have had this same issue. I've been contemplating getting the cordless grease guns...... so this is the way to go?

 

But how are the battery powered guns different from the hand pumps as far as internal seals are concerned? I don't mind using a hand pump, I just don't want to waste half the grease inside the gun...

 

I have not had a bit of trouble with the seals so far and it get's used alot, the thing I like the most is that I can keep a hand on the zerk end if its loose or not on all the way etc..and just squeeze the trigger & after doing a service on a truck etc my forarm thanks me.

 

The internal seals I believe are the same, the only difference is the motor pumps instead of you hand. The battery guns are only worth the money if you have quite a few places to grease. I think there are roughly 28 grease zerks on an semi tractor (give or take a few) so by the time your done with all of those you'll never want to hand pump again. If the only thing I had to grease was a pickup I probably wouldn't spend the money.