Wet bolts won't take grease on spring hangers

[fkrist7803]

Hi, I'm Finn - we have a 2021 Reflection 297 RSTS. I've been trying to grease the spring hangers, but the bolts will not take grease even at high pressure. I loosened the bolts and turned them, but still no luck. Do you think they're stopped up or is there some trick I'm not aware of? Any advice or help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

[Cate&Rob]

Hi fkrist7803

Welcome to our owners technical forum. It is often difficult to get the wet bolts to take grease if the exit hole is pressed tightly against the bushing. The usual way to adjust this is to jack up the trailer frame and as the weight is removed from the suspension, the space between spring bushing and grease opening relaxes. A caution . . , you should not rotate the bolt. There are serrations under the bolt head that engage the hanger to keep the bolt from rotating. If you force the bolt to turn, you will tear out these serrations in the hanger.

Edit: An additional thought . . , if you have loosened the nuts, they should be replaced and not just re-tightened. These are torque retaining “crunch” nuts and should only be tightened into place one time.

Rob

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Is this the first time trying to grease them? Like did they take grease before?
If they never took grease, it's possible you have incompletely drilled grease passages if the advice from Rob doesn't help.

[Yoda]

Hi, I'm Finn - we have a 2021 Reflection 297 RSTS. I've been trying to grease the spring hangers, but the bolts will not take grease even at high pressure. I loosened the bolts and turned them, but still no luck. Do you think they're stopped up or is there some trick I'm not aware of? Any advice or help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Rob and Scott have given you good advice. One thing you can do is remove the zerk and see if it will take grease itself Then clean out the bolt hole (pipe cleaner or thin wire twisted a bit to catch the grease inside the hole). Then reassemble and try again. If you do remove and replace the bolt, have the grease hole at 3 or 9 position.

Hope this helps
Keith

[Jlawles2]

Pull the zerk fitting, then use a drill bit by hand (may need to grab it in locking pliers) and see if you can find the bottom of the hole. From there do as suggested with a wire to see if you can find the cross hole where grease is to exit.

[TucsonJim]

I replaced my wet bolts a while back with bolts from MorRyde. One of them would not take grease. The culprit was the exit hole. It was not drilled deep enough to intersect the main grease channel in the bolt.

Jim

[Scott'n'Wendy]

I replaced my wet bolts a while back with bolts from MorRyde. One of them would not take grease. The culprit was the exit hole. It was not drilled deep enough to intersect the main grease channel in the bolt.

Jim

I mentioned your experience on another forum. Almost immediately a couple more people mentioned the same thing happened to them. It may not be as uncommon as I first thought. Figure it is a pretty easy QC item..."is there a hole there? Yes? No?"

[Yoda]

I mentioned your experience on another forum. Almost immediately a couple more people mentioned the same thing happened to them. It may not be as uncommon as I first thought. Figure it is a pretty easy QC item..."is there a hole there? Yes? No?"

That's why when I did my axle replacement I made sure each bolt took grease. I also got machining bits of metal and crud out when I did that. Worth the time to check. I also marked the head where the outlet hole was to make sure I had the orientation right when installing. I used a sharp metal chisel to put a line on the bolt head by the zerk fitting others have used a steel punch to add a dot. Paint works too, but will wear off over time.
Keith