Safety Issue

[Fishfiles]

Here is something I seen yesterday which could get someone hurt so I'd like to pass it on , I was resealing a cylinder on a JD 450G , the pin on the rod end side was frozen up really bad at the rods end , I had got it to break loose from the mounting ears on both outsides , you can't get to the back side and hit the pin so I did a few things to get it out , I welded a nut to the end of the pin and was using a slide hammer which didn't move it so I hit it with some heat , I didn't remove the grease fitting from the end the rod and spray some penetratig oil down the journal which I would normally do , well after heating it up it went off like a black power rifle , there was an explosion which blew out the ball which seats the end of the grease fitting (zerk) and a cloud of smoke blow up out the fitting like a volcano , if the ball would have been pointing at me I think it would have been like getting shot , I never seen anything like that happen before

 

[Tazza]

WOW, thats some scary stuff! That was just from the oil you sprayed in and it went off with the torch rite? Or was it the grease catching fire?

 

[Fishfiles]

WOW, thats some scary stuff! That was just from the oil you sprayed in and it went off with the torch rite? Or was it the grease catching fire?

I think it was from the grease turned hard in the journal whick cooked under pressure as teball was holding it in , the pressure got so great it blew the ball out the zerk with a hugh cloud of white smoke , a loud bang and no telling how far the ball traveled lesson learned , take out the zerk before heating up

 

[Tazza]

I think it was from the grease turned hard in the journal whick cooked under pressure as teball was holding it in , the pressure got so great it blew the ball out the zerk with a hugh cloud of white smoke , a loud bang and no telling how far the ball traveled lesson learned , take out the zerk before heating up

I guess it makes sense, the heat made the grease expand and the weakest point was the ball on the grease nipple so it let go. There must have been some serious pressure there! They normally have up to 10,000 PSI behind them from the grease gun.