Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Greasing the kingpins

Ok, I have been following this thread and have a question. I have removed the oilers from the 54 and replaced it with a grease nipple. I have new king pins and used white lithium grease. I have tried to put grease in the king pins through the nipple and can't force grease through the nipples. Am I missing something about putting in the grease or do I need to get a grease gun that attaches to the compressors for more power? From some of the things I have read that when you rebuild the king pins with white lithium you don't need to worry about grease in the king pins. I only have 500 miles on these king pins.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Ben

Ben, from a dull memory my hand pumped grease gun supposedly can create up to 2000lbs pressure which should be more than enough to encourage grease to flow..?

In order to generate pressure in the area to be greased, the grease gun requires to lock on to the nipple, thus nipple type plays a part as does the nozzle on the gun.

If the length of thread on the nipples is too long they may be up tight against the king pin or other obstruction thus blocking off the hole..?

I tend to apply grease every 300 miles or so. Replaced my kingpins and bushes at circa 33k miles.

Agree with Luddite. Make sure the gun is latched on, and in line with the nipple. If it’s at an angle grease will squirt out round the edges.
I am also on 33k miles with original pins, greasing every 500 miles (and no gaiters!) and simply de-grease and clean up the rebound area once a year.

If you are talking about the top nipple you replaced instead of the oiler the tube is very narrow & some folk think it is unlikely grease will flow down it.
See GoMog
http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/remotegreasing.html

I have extended the grease galley about 4" on all 3 of My Morgans. So I do not have to crawl under My Morgans to grease the lower bush. Extending the grease galley is not hard but it is time consuming. The KP must be removed from the drill press very often and the chips knocked out and blown out with compressed air. I doubt I can drill more than an 1/8" with out knocking the chips out. I use a 3 jawed chuck from My late to hold the pin. I suppose I could do this on My lathe but for some reason I am more comfortable using the drill press. If you can not do this yourself don't pay a Machinist to do it. Not worth it

Well, I opened up my wallet and bought a better grease gun. It was able to develop enough pressure to push the grease into the top of the king pins. So, now the king pins are greased upper and lower. I am learning to buy good quality tools rather than the cheap ones.

Thanks for all the advice.

Ben

OK two dumb questions coming up.
Before I get there this thread has been immensely useful and like Gambalunga discovered that I needed a grease gun after I had bought our Morgan. I had a reason to call Cain to understand what might be possible in tackling the Morgans propensity to bottom out rather more frequently than I liked and asked him what gun he used, apparently a 50 year old John Deere - I found one and bought that. It is a big gun and after reading a thread about toolkits on tour I found I might need a smaller unit to carry with us, found this thread and then found a secondhand Wanner on eBay for £30 with a rigid and flexible hose. I’ve gone from never owning a grease gun to a two gun man.
Anyway I’m about to make my first foray underneath a Morgan and grease whatever I find and here is the first question. I assume there are grease nipples top and bottom and I hear references to an ‘oiler’ - is the oiler the top nipple or something else?
Second question. The Wanner is a compact unit and currently full of old grease and so I cannot see if it takes a cartridge or has to be manually filled. What do you guys think? If it takes a small cartridge where can I source these, an internet search did not show much.
I also really appreciate all the advice an help on this forum it is a fantastic resource for the new Morgan owner, nice banter too.
Kevin

Congrats on being a two grease gun guy... (-: To fill my Wanner I give a half turn on the black handle at the bottom which disconnects it`s grip on the body of the gun, exposing a link or two of chain, which is connected to a piston in the guns cylinder/body.

Now holding the gun firmly you can pull on the chain which will draw the piston down the body of the gun against the strong internal spring.. using the slot either side of the central hole through which the chain runs, in order to lock any link you choose to hold the piston at any particular position of it`s stroke.

with the pressure off the piston you can unscrew the head off the other end of the gun`s body and if the grease now exposed is old and hard, best get your fingers dirty and get it out...

If required you can release the spring pressure to allow the piston to rise, using the chain to lock the piston at any particular height..

The idea of recharging the gun was in times past cans of grease had a tight fitting cover over the grease within the can which had a hole in it`s centre… The idea being that you could refil the gun with the head removed, by holding it in place over the hole and while pressing down on the gun you pull on the chain at the same time thus pressurising the grease and sucking it into the gun..

Whether you find this works for you or not...?

Me I tend yo just fill the gun with my fingers trying to trap as little air as possible.

Once full, just screw the head back on and release the chain links allowing the spring to pressurise the grease within the gun, hold the gun upside down and allow the loose chain links to fall back into the gun, replace the black handle.

Chances are that your gun will not pressurise the grease, as the pumping mechanism will have air in it due to the refilling process.

You should have two BLEED screws the one sticking out of the back of the head is an air bleed screw, if you unscrew that you will hear air escaping, followed by an ever growing worm of grease, best to shut that off once after perhaps 20mm of work has escaped..

The gun should now pump grease when the handle is operated..

The other bleed valve on top of the head is to release pressure should the gun be fixed to the nipple with pressure which can happen if there is some sort of blockage and you have pumped up the pressure to the max you can and no grease escapes from the suspension.... if you use the bleed valve thumb screw it will then allow you to disconnect the nozzle.

Hope this helps.

Your car will have two grease nipples on each kingpin. I usually turn the steering wheel completely to one side and then to the other. This gives good access whilst lying in front of the car. Some prefer to jack up the front of the car but I have never bothered. Obviously you need something to clean the dirt and any grease from around the nipple. I use paper kitchen towels. For the nipple on the stub axle you can usually see when sufficient greas has been pumped in because some will start to exude around the top of the stub axle. For the nipple that is in the top of the kingpin 4 or 5 pumps should be sufficient.

I usually clean as much as I can the lower spring and the exposed surface of the kingpin then I put a little fresh grease around the spring. Some also use gaiters on the lower rebound springs.

Luddite, Gambalunga this is great and I really appreciate the advice and information, I feel my confidence growing.
I’ll let you know how it goes
Kevin