16 replies to this topic

[day101]

Went to greese my car and they seem blocked whats the best way to unblock them?

[stickycreambun]

unscrew it all the way out and clear it? dont lose the lttle bitty!

[Ethel]

Jab it with a nail.

[ginigwunkle]

get a new one?

only a few pence!

[jack_marshall]

A poke with a pick if the ends just blocked up.

Or a poke all the way through with a piece of thin welding wire if it needs it.

[Dog]

or soak them in petrol over night, and give 'em a though clean the next day...

[Spenner]

Give them a good tweek and have some bitty

Edited by Spenner, 20 March 2008 - 07:10 PM.

[liirge]

Naaah, youve all missed the oldest trick in the book!
Unscrew the Nipple, and BOIL it!!
Works a trick!

[taffy1967]

I usually just poke the ball bearing with a little screw driver and perhaps spray a tiny bit of WD40 at it and then they work a treat.

[midridge2]

why soak them for hours, why boil them, as taffy says just poke with a very small screwdriver, job done took 5 seconds.

[ginigwunkle]

also
keep a film of grease over the nipple and it wont happen again......

[dklawson]

Soaking? If you want.

Remove the nipple, poke at the ball sealing the end, hook it to your grease gun and give it a couple of pumps (off the car). Any debris should move right through and NOT get driven into what your greasing.

As mentioned, capping the nipples when not in use is cheap insurance. Over here, Eastwood sells little plastic caps just for that purpose. Before I bought a bag of those, I was in the habit of using the little vinyl hose caps on the nipples to keep them clean.

[ginigwunkle]

any ideas of the rubber caps in the uk?

i have some on my brake nipples and there very good at keeping the cack out, the grease coating attracts road grime!

[liirge]

Urrm Dropping in boiling water doesn't exactly take a great deal of effort or time, and cleans the whole nipple extremely well!
Most engineering works will recommend this method.

[dklawson]

I went back to my source's web site and couldn't find the caps I'm currently using. I guess it's a good thing I had to buy a bag of about 100 pieces when I ordered them!

I did find a link that shows what they look like. As luck would have it, this is a U.K. company.
http://www.component...p...egory&id=28
I did find a U.K. manufacturer for covers like these,
http://www.skiffy.com/en/ferrules.htm
(Catalog page at: http://pdf.directind...22944-_146.html )
36 GBP / 1000 pieces. They show offices for several locations in the U.K.

However, you may find any easier, cheaper, and more readily available answer at the DIY center. Go to the section where they sell the enamel (or vinyl) covered metal wire, modular shelving supplies. The shelves are often cut-to-length at the store to fit your needs and vinyl caps are sold in various sizes to cover and protect the cut end of the shelving. I have found uses for these all through the garage. As grease nipple or bleed nipple covers the only problem the vinyl caps have is that they lack a lanyard to keep them attached to the car.

EDIT: by the way, I had lots of fun looking for these things on the net. Go Googling for "nipple covers" or "nipple caps" and see what you come up with.

Edited by dklawson, 21 March 2008 - 01:05 AM.