Grease woes

JFromm

I am unable to get grease into the fitting  under the battery for the upper control arm. Have replaced the fitting and still get nothing but resistance when I use the grease gun. Any ideas on how to solve this problem would be appreciated. 

Thanks,

John 

ernie28

John

I had a similar issue and overcame it by loosening the the big end nut half a turn or so and that let the grease in. I re-tightened and now have no problem greasing. It was as if some old grease may have hardened and been an obstruction. It may not have been the ideal way of resolving the issue but it worked for me.

Good luck.

JFromm

Tried that already. Should have mentioned that before.

Glowplug

Without taking the suspension apart, try softening the area with a propane torch. Obviously one would be concerned about causing the grease to ignite.

Lee ODell

John
Have you removed the grease fitting and tried to squirt grease thru it. Sometimes the grease is so hard in the fitting it is impossible to get grease thru it. If that is the case, install new fitting. Hudson recommends lubing the suspension every 1000 miles. When I replace the broken rear spings on my Hornet, I found the rear shackle bushings had not been greased for so long the bushings were now oval. I was lucky to have a couple good shackles and bushings to replace bad ones. Apparently, your car has not been lubed for a very long time and may have some worn out bushings.
Lee O'Dell

SuperDave

Some good advice above.. But if all fails..There is a tool for that. I had one many years ago. It looks like a punch. Had a female grease fitting on the end and an internal piston. Place it on the offending zerk fitting and strike the "punch" with BAHH..( Big A.. Heavy Hammer). it exerts a LOT of pressure and will most likely clear it up. I never used it on a right angle fitting.. Most likely It would shear it off!    LOL

RichardD

The very first item {has a video about it}

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/NTESearch?storeId=6970&ipp=24&Ntt=grease+fitting+punch

Glowplug

Great post Richard!

SuperDave

That looks great compared to the one I had. Mine was probably made in Occupied Japan..LOL

Lee ODell

I didn't know Primitive Pete was still around. I learned about him back in Hi School auto shop. His favorite tool repairing cars was a big hammer. ha ha

Richard, I was not aware such a tool existed. Interesting, but it is still less expensive to replace grease fitting than buy a tool. That tool may have been used at some time on a few cars I lubed and grease leaked back out of fitting after lubing.

John, I just reread the first post and missed the problem was not the grease fitting because you replace it already. The problem is the very old grease is hard. I hope the suggestions work. However, even it some grease gets in, the damage to the bushing and inner shaft threads has already been done.

I suggest jack the car up under lower control arm as close to wheel as possible, remove wheel, unscrew forward upper control arm bushing off inner shaft, leave rear bushing attached, remove hard grease from both the inner shaft and bushing threads, clean and inspect both threads for wear. If either is worn - replace bushing and shaft. If all is ok, (doubtful) reinstall and remove rear bushing and go though the cleaning & inspection process again. If worn replace inner shaft and both bushings. All the parts should come as a complete kit.

Hudson recommends lubing the suspension every 1000 miles.
Lee O'Dell

Lee ODell

John
The reason for jacking up the car as mentioned is to take suspension pressure off the bushing making it easier to remove and reinstall bushing.
Lee

Per

A long time ago I bought a '46 Hudson Super Six coupe which had for many years been used by a small Hudson dealer to get parts.  This dealer was still in business because they had a large alignment machine that could service trucks as well as cars.

I wanted to have the car aligned, so I drove to the dealer.  He smiled when he saw the car (which had been sold to someone else before I got it).  

When I asked to have it aligned, he said,

"I can't align that car.  We never greased it in all the years we had it!  The bushings are worn out, and need to be replaced before it can be aligned."

So I went home and set the toe-in myself, and the rest of the alignment never got done.

Per