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TR2/3/3A Karl's ham handed adventures for your amusement in these trying times.

karls59tr

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I was going to grease the trunnion with 00 lubriplate. The container came with a tube and grease fitting. Unfortunately I had lost the end fitting part that goes onto the grease zerk. It appeared to be a course thread not like the 1/8NPT or whatever comes on a normal grease gun. Everything is closed so would not even be able to buy one anyway. I found a small cheap grease gun in my tool kit that was still in the wrapper. Must have bought it years ago. I put that on the bottom trunnion grease zerk and when I went to take it off the grease gun fitting had a death grip on the zerk! No amount of fiddling would get it off. Hung on like pit bull had it! I put a vice grip on the offending grease gun end and proceeded to to pry off the grease zerk "along with the bottom of the trunnion" which is stainless steel and a little bigger than 25 cent piece.Doh!
The plan is to clean the grease and contaminants out of the area and ,rough up the mating surfaces and Permatex cold weld epoxy glue them together. That's a brass surface to stainless steel. I will try and rig up a clamping system. If anyone has a better idea for a bonding agent let me know. Not going to buy a whole trunnion. The TR3 is keeping me busy during the copid-19 virus so I'm not complaining too much.:joyous:
 

TR3driver

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Worth a try I guess, but I don't hold much hope that the JB Weld will hold. My idea would be to take it all back apart and braze them together, but that's a lot of work.

Most grease gun couplers are actually two halves; if it happens again, unscrew the half at the tip. Often, just a turn will be enough, but if you have to, unscrew it all the way and let the jaws fall out.
 
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karls59tr

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Worth a try I guess, but I don't hold much hope that the JB Weld will hold. My idea would be to take it all back apart and braze them together, but that's a lot of work.

Most grease gun couplers are actually two halves; if it happens again, unscrew the half at the tip. Often, just a turn will be enough, but if you have to, unscrew it all the way and let the jaws fall out.

This grease gun coupler was solid. Didn't notice till it was on the zerk. An overseas piece of crap?
 
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karls59tr

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The actual trunnions are brass but the very bottom 100_2050.jpgpart(size of a 25 cent piece) that holds the grease zerk is actually a thin steel disc. Not stainless like I mentioned. I would never have known this until I yanked it off. According to the Permatex bonding agent chart I looked at the cold weld bonding compound is the way to go for metal to metal surfaces. I've had good and bad luck with these bonding agents but it's worth a shot.:fox:
 

sp53

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Oh yeah for sure. I would try it also. I forgot about that piece. Does it also get crimped into the hole somehow? Maybe you can re-crimp with a metal round clamp to help it hold. I had that piece on trunnion be loose before. Bummer, I have had those grease guns hold tight before too
 
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karls59tr

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Oh yeah for sure. I would try it also. I forgot about that piece. Does it also get crimped into the hole somehow? Maybe you can re-crimp with a metal round clamp to help it hold. I had that piece on trunnion be loose before. Bummer, I have had those grease guns hold tight before too

Yes there is a sort of curved brass piece that holds the steel disc in place. I'm going to form a thin strip of that malleable epoxy putty and wrap it around it around the bottom of the disc once my initial repair has set up. Sometimes you have to be a bit of a Cuban mechanic to get things done and I mean that with respect to those guys.:encouragement:
Are you working on any LBC repairs?
 

Got_All_4

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Brass is notorious for nothing to stick to it. That's why they make paint guns out of brass. So I'm with Randall and braze it back together.
 

sp53

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Well it will be good test for the JB-- keep us post how it holds. If it does not work maybe some silicone orange or black the RTV stuff. Anyways, I thought maybe if you clean stuff up good with some brake clean and work fast you might get a couple of ugly tacks with solder using a good acid and gun or iron; a torch will run grease too fast. When I was in my young twenties, they still soldered gutters and down spouts outside in the rain. Heck it was crazy sometimes with rags and salimoniac bars and acid, but we made stuff stick and seal. In this case, I would try to get a couple tacks then us the silicone.
 
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