Grease fitting blew off at a Rite Aid job in Columbus

Was greasing the rear swing pinion on a Liebherr 130 and the zerk fitting shot off like a bullet, hit my hard hat with a loud ping. Had to crawl under the house with a magnet for 20 minutes to find the tiny thing in the dirt. Finally got it back on, but not before the site foreman saw me kneeling there and asked if I was praying to the crane gods. Has anyone else had a fitting pop off mid-grease and have to hunt for it in the gravel?

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2 Comments

the_david1mo ago

Magnets and hard hats are standard issue, so that part checks out. But twenty minutes hunting a zerk in gravel sounds like you were being dramatic about it. Those things are tiny but they usually land within a few feet of where you were standing. Crawling the whole area with a magnet sounds like you were making a project out of a two minute fix. And the foreman asking if you were praying, that's just him busting your chops, happens on every site. If a fitting blows off regular enough to be a real pain, then the thread's probably worn or you're using too much pressure. That's a five minute fix with a tap and die, not a story worth telling.

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diana_king1mo ago

Heard a guy say those fittings never miss the mud, always find the one spot you cannot reach.

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