Can't get grease into kingpins

[Super Mech]

I've been doing some work for a new customer with a small fleet of 06-08 Isuzu NPR/NPR HDs with gas engines. Trucks are fairly low mileage (68000-81000). On one truck I cant get grease to go into the lower king pin joints. I was gonna try and heat them with a torch but was looking for other sugesstions.

 

[Fast Orange]

I had the same problem with a UD (Nissan).I replaced the fittings with new ones,jacked up the truck and turned the wheels side to side while pulling the trigger on a 10,000 PSI pneumatic grease gun. I kept pushing grease through until new looking grease came out.
Then I fired the so called mechanic that never greased the fittings when he serviced the truck....

 

[DMARSHALL]

you can buy a tool off the tool truck thats made for hard to grease joint/pins. you load grease in to it place it on the zerk and hit it with a hammer.sometimes i use knocker loose penetrant oil insted of grease and let set over night. hope this helps.

 

[DMARSHALL]

i have also used a portapower pump with the correct fitting on the end of the hose and forced jack oil in to it to break it loose

 

[clueless]

that is a common problem with the npr series when they havent been greased regularly. the interval should be cut in half for grease. local company has a fleet of them, they had all kinds of issues with tat very same problem along with them wearing out, they cut the greasing interval in half and all the problems were solved,after new kingpins were put in.

as for using heat, you have to be careful of the lower bearing on the spindle,where it rides on the axle, heat will destroy it. jack them up, get the weight off it, put a good coupler on it,a new grease fitting also, hit it with grease while turning it from lock to lock,keeping pressure on it.besides the fitting is in a not so user friendly place,a 90 on a coupler works good on them. sometimes you will get lucky and break it free.other times you will end up replacing the kingpins. stemco makes a spiral set which the local spring shop recommended to us. easy to put in, lasts as long as the drive in ream/pre reamed set.

have fun with them!!

 

[HTGTS350]

Use the porta power first to drive the hard grease out then all should be good.

 

[pop pop]

Not exactly your problem, but I've had issues where the problem was the zerk fitting and not the joint.

 

[gpgab97]

Or painted over fittings that were never cleared before their initial grease, lots of that going on with new equipment i've seen. Just last week I had to remove some from our new roll off trucks winches. One driver complained that his hand pump grease gun wasn't working causing his winch not to freewheel properly and squeal under load. After a quick probe with the pick set I found a good 3/16" column of hard dried paint inside the zerk. I pulled the zerks on all 6 of the trucks with similar findings some were factory painted Landoll's. I have yet to check our Linde forklift, it's just 4 weeks old but I bet I'll find the same.

 

[Super Mech]

Where can I purchase the Stemco kingpin sets?

 

[Lpmfg]

At my shop we take care of very large fleets, there could be a series of problems, first you want to make sure the zerk is passing grease through it, secondly the bushings installed in the spindle them selves will have a hole in the in bushing that will need to be lined up with the grease hole (side of spindle), often times the bushing will not be clocking in-line (indexed to the service hole) with the grease\service hole. check that when you have the grease fitting out. if the bushings are from a none ream kit, they will be spiraled, and the grease will pass through the bushings, however. I have seen spiral bushings installed in the spindle with pins made for a brass bushing, these pins are different in most cases. If you have spiral bushings in the spindle and your grease fittings pass grease and you still cannot get grease in, check the pin itself. Hope that helps, you should get these cars switched to a autolube pump, that will save a lot of problems..

 

[Lpmfg]

Where can I purchase the Stemco kingpin sets?

Stemco = KAISER

 

[OctoMan]

Try cleaning the zerk.

 

[kbs2244]

I am not familiar with the Nissan, but when I had this problem with the old Fords I would take off the Zerk, squirt lots of penetrating oil into the hole while some turned the steering wheel lock to lock.
Follow that with some squirts of motor oil, again working the wheel back and forth.
Then install a new Zerk and a high pressure gun.