Grease nipples can be tricky things, despite what you may read its not an easy thing to do when it all goes wrong. Some people would have seen the grease around the nipple and assume grease is going in, its not, you have passed the first test, you’ve done well to identify you have a problem. To fix.
Prod the ball in the nipple a few times to make certain it is not stuck and goes in and out easily, give it a bit of exercise. When you are certain its not stuck try again. If you get the same result, assuming you have at least one nipple you can get grease into, swap the “stuck nipple” with the one that works. If you do not have any that work, take a nipple out put it in a vice, and test it to see if you can get grease through, off the car, where you can see what is happening. If grease goes though easily the chances are you have not seated the grease gun properly onto the nipple. Replace the nipple and try again. If it is still not working, take the nipple out again, clean out as much of the old grease as possible and soak it in WD40 (or similar) overnight, then try again. If that does not work go and buy some new nipples. There are various designs / types of nipple so experimenting with different styles, that may make access easier, may be worth a go. I have a “long reach” nipple that I use to do my greasing, I remove the short nipple put in the long one grease up and then install the short nipple again.
Once you get it going after a few squeezes of the gun you will feel the pressure on the trigger start to increase, that’s a sign you have put enough grease in. In some cases you will see grease ooze out, that’s the time to stop. If you over pressure with grease you can push out seals, never use an air operated gun always by hand, you need to be able to feel it. Don’t forget the prop shaft has nipples on both the forward and aft UV joints. Good luck, and don’t let it beat you, its very satisfying when you have fixed the problem.
