Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Help please

Afternoon everybody
I am as green as the grass when it comes to grease guns. I tried this morning for the first time to grease the stub axel etc on my plus 4 .
And low and behold I could not get the connector to go onto the nipples. Question is do grease gun connectors come in different sizes or am I a complete idiot.

John

Your certainly not an idiot John, idiots don't ask questions ;-)

Whilst there are different sized nipples (old cars, Morgan era cars and trucks for example) for all intents and purposes they are all the same for your requirements. The difficulty is the gun has to 'latch on' (apologies to all feeding mothers) and the gun end is sprung loaded, on good guns its also adjustable but don't worry about that for now.

The trick is to line up square and push fairly hard and the guns connector will be felt to 'click' on. the problem with the stubs is the damper is in the way.... there is a simple trick however. the lower fixing (9/16" AF spanner size)nyloc nut can be backed off or even removed (not really required) so that the damper body can be pulled, or levered with a large screwdriver forwards to give clearance for the gun. Also try it with the steering on different locks as that helps move the damper away a fraction. if you can get some angled nipples they help a lot also.

Once its locked on you can pump away and the action of greasing helps the connector grip. To remove the gun you often have to tip it through a few degrees whilst carefully pulling away. If you have a quality gun like a Wanner (best on the planet)most have 2 bleed nipples, the one on the back of the gun is for bleeding the grease chamber, the one on the top is used to reduce the hydraulic pressure and help removal (a lot don't realise that ;-)).

You will save yourself hundred and hundreds of pounds of premature wear and stiff steering with regular greasing, once done its a simple process and you will develop the knack, some fit remote greasers but many like to get under and take a couple of 1/2" AF spanners with them and do a quick spanner check whilst your down there. Morgan's respond well to TLC and maintenance and its fun to do! Honest ;-)

I’d need more information to be able to tell if you’re a complete idiot, so I’m afraid I can’t answer that question.

Grease nipples are all the same, but alignment is key, straight on for on a slight angle for removal. Because the end is ball shaped and they’ve used angles nipples, it’s not always obvious which way is straight on.


Persevere and you’ll get it right, wasted grease is cheaper than kingpins!

Edited to add,

Hah, I replied without reading there was a proper expert reply already!

Thanks for the quick reply guys I will give it another go this afternoon.
John

Blimey, talk about learning something new every day. I've been using Wanner guns for over 40 years and never knew that!

But then I've never had a problem getting a gun off a nipple, I find a rolling motion as you twist the gun works fine for me,

You need to replace the end metal end of the grease gun nozzle for a new one which eliminates the pressure drop , grease nipples also wear as well so change them as well for some shiny new ones , stops any leakage of grease completely.

.....and on older cars where the nipple may be a loose fit on the gun, so that the gun won't stay latched on, a piece of cloth can be used, laid over the nipple and the grease gun will go over it, grease still goes through the cloth, and the gun won't pop off.

ROFL Tim, if you look at the drilling it's obvious what it's venting but you would only look if you have had the problem. I can't remember the number of times I had apprentices snap off nipples trying to force a gun off back in the day....this was an eara when we still had A60's coming in to the workshop mind you ;-).

Nothing wrong in changing connector ends but to be honest mine is 50 years old and I suspect had more use than most being used every day on the shop floor for the first 10 years and it's never had a new end and locks on fine and is still tight, mind you it is a Wanner and they build quality stuff. Some nipples are rubbish and very poor quality so they certainly need changing, never did in the past but they never came from China either!

Nice to read someone understanding the old 'trade dodges'........

Sorry this was a reply to Paul

Well I have had a wanner for years and I have learnt about the top veng today.