Posted by Ben on October 21, 01 at 07:34:06:
In Reply to: maintenance question posted by blue on October 21, 01 at 01:11:18:
You are off to a great start!
A zerk is a fitting that has a pipe thread on one end that threads into a complimentry part that has passages directing grease to the area needing grease. The zerk looks like a small protrusion from that threaded hole and is usually rounded, about 1/4" in dia. Can be straight or angled from the surface. There is a small hole at the end of the rounded end which has a spring loaded ball inside pushing outwards closing the hole from dirt/water/etc. That ball is inserted in the factory from the inside and has a spring pushing it into a tappered hole.
The grease gun has a fitting that grabs the ball, mates the grease channel onto the receiving hole with the check ball. The gun's fitting clamps onto and hold the fitting in place. Angle of fitting is important, as any miss alignment will allow grease to flow out the sides. As the grease gun's handle or whatever builds pressure pushing the grease into the zerk, the ball's spring is compressed and grease is flowed into the zerk, through the channels and into the area needing greas.
There are many types of greas guns from single hand operated to two hand operated. The fitting comes with fixed or with flex hose to allow access to hard to get to zerks.
The greased joint usually has seals to keep the grease in and dirt&water out. If too much grease is injected, it can blow out the seals and cause joint failure by allowing dirt&water to enter. Many front end joints have rubber envelopes that hold/trap the grease around the moving parts. They usually have bleed holes to allow the excess grease to weep out. You can tell how much grease is going in by the amount of "swelling" that rubber envelope increases in size. Too much and it will pop off and lose it's seal.
Use the best grease you budget for. It's not that expensive when you consider how little is used and how long it lasts.
This board has reported that there are 11 zerks on a 4x4 pre2001 Suburban. I've been greasing 10 and think I'm going to have a failure of that 11th spot soon (bummper, wished that thread was posted in 1996... :)
I do not recommend engine oil flush, especially since you use synthetic and have an aggresive routine (that 3K mile interval).
Gase treatment is a good thing once in a while. I used to use Chevron but switched back to Chemtool when Traveler found it is okay for CATs. Read the bottle instructions of whichever you chose, as most say one bottle treats 10-12 gallons, which meand 4 bottles for my 42gallon Sub. NEVER run the gas tank below 1/8th full, as the gas is used to lub and cool the fuel pump.
Change your fuel filter once a year, min. Or whenever you notice the fuel pump sounding "different". Our fuel pumps run the whole gas tank full of fuel around sevreal times in the time it takes to use it all (one tank may flow as many times as 5-10 [my guess] around the fuel pump).
Also flush your tranny fluid every other year or about 20-30 thousand miles. That is the 16 quart flush, not the pan drop & filter change (5 quarts). Ditto transfer case. Ditto power steering pump. Use synthetic.
Watch out for the radiator's DeathCool (DexCool) pink stuff. I switched to green, but your's may still be in warranty and you must keep DeathCool till after it runs out of warranty. Many here still use DeathCool, but I'm not one of them.
Trucks have huge amounts of margin designed into them. Worst case is what they designed to, so if you continue your routine and don't over load, it will last a very, very long time.