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In the picture below, take note of the bolt head on the right side of the leaf spring hanger. It isn't fully seated within the hanger. The shoulder of the bolt is splined. I've pounded on it with a pipe to clear the zerk fitting. I've tightened the nut as far as it will go. As near as I can tell, the leaf spring hanger is a bit narrower than the bolt is long.
Is this a problem? The nut is tight, so I'm inclined to call it a day, but keep an eye on it.
If I were to put a spacer between the hanger and the leaf spring, that might allow the nut to draw the head into the hanger. However, given that I've worked on it hard with a hammer, I'm not confident that the nut would actually pull the bolt head into the hanger.
First verify the parts are correct for the application and undamaged. Next, maybe try loosening or removing the nut and turning the head of the bolt while using the pipe and persuader? I would not pound on it...rather align and persuade... Also consider wiggling/moving the spring around while seating the bolt.
The six other bolts on this side went in OK. They all seated without a gap. I may stick a couple of washers between the spring and the hanger to make a bigger width that the bolt has to span. That might allow the nut to pull the bolt in. However, the torque specified isn't much, maybe 50 ft/lbs.
I have one more bolt that won't seat in a hanger bracket.
More than half of the zerk fittings would not allow grease to be pumped into the wet bolts. I removed the a zerk from the bolt and tried to pump grease through the zerk. It still wouldn't let grease flow through.
I'm going to send an email to Dexter asking for guidance on the bolts that won't seat and ask for replacement zerk fittings.
I just did this kit today but the morryde brand. I had to hit mine in to the brackets. I removed the zerks so not to damage them. The 50lbft is not enough to draw them in to set slotted bolt. Maybe that bolt is not lined up on the opposite side? The shoulder on the opposite side was a little tricky on mine online up. Took some jack adjustment a couple times to dial it in.
It's worth removing the nut and checking to make sure the shoulder of the bolt is all the way through the hole. I'll look at that next weekend.
I used a pipe to pound on the bolt. The pipe cleared the zerk fitting.
I tried to send a a message to Dexter but their "Contact Us" web page is acting like it's broken. I don't think my questions went through. I'll call tomorrow.
I'm in phone system Hell. Dexter's phone system sucks. Their website sucks.
I talked to Duane at Dexter. He's in tech support and understood the situation. He said to check the nut side of the bolt to ensure it was through the hanger bracket's hole. If it was, then call it day.
On the defective zerk fittings he said to call the Dexter Service/Warranty department and gave me the part number to request. That's when things went south. I spent 20 minutes trying to get to someone in that department. I couldn't even leave a message. The live main operator was useless. She just passed me on to the same section of the phone system that ended up routing me back to her or disconnecting the call.
I tried to again leave a message on the Contact Us web page, using a different browser this time. It still failed.
[QUOTE=HRTKD;18776354]I'm in phone system Hell. Dexter's phone system sucks. Their website sucks.
I talked to Duane at Dexter. He's in tech support and understood the situation. He said to check the nut side of the bolt to ensure it was through the hanger bracket's hole. If it was, then call it day.
On the defective zerk fittings he said to call the Dexter Service/Warranty department and gave me the part number to request. That's when things went south. I spent 20 minutes trying to get to someone in that department. I couldn't even leave a message. The live main operator was useless. She just passed me on to the same section of the phone system that ended up routing me back to her or disconnecting the call.
I tried to again leave a message on the Contact Us web page, using a different browser this time. It still failed.
This does not instill confidence in Dexter.[/QUOTE
Couldn't you just get some zerks from the auto or hardware store. Cheap and quick and it will be done.
Sucks that the customer service was so poor, but Dexter didn't make the zerk fittings, they got them from a vendor, I am sure they don't test them. I wouldn't waste my time trying to get replacements from Dexter, just go to the parts store and get some.
Armed with three types of zerk fittings (straight, 45° and 90°), I tried to get my trailer suspension greased. What a mess. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I took a second grease gun and it would work sometimes when the other (more expensive) gun wouldn't. But there are some zerks that just wouldn't take any grease once they were in the wet bolt. Outside the wet bolt they would sometimes work. The coupler on the cheaper gun worked better.
I suspect that the outlet hole for the wet bolt is too snug against the brass bushing, so no grease can get out that way. These wet bolt holes are aligned in the right direction by the manufacturer. So even I can't screw that up.
I really don't want to have to remove the shackles from the trailer. It was hard enough to get them in there.
The trailer is on jack stands under the frame. I have bottle jacks under the axles so I can move them up/down as needed. Tires are off. I moved the axles up/down a lot, trying to find a sweet spot for the grease to exit the bolts.
Of the eight zerk fittings on one side, two of them aren't taking grease. Each shackle has one of these zerk fittings.
Dexter has very specific instructions telling you to align the wet bolt outlet on the horizontal plane so that it doesn't end up at the top where all the weight is. Only the bolts in the hanger brackets need this attention. The bolts in shackles are already inserted into the shackles from the factory, pre-aligned on the horizontal.
I ordered a new grease gun and an upgraded coupler. My current grease gun is "only" 4000 PSI.
I did learn something yesterday. The coupler that worked the best is adjustable. The tip rotated to allow it to be tighter or looser. I wish I had known that from the start. The coupler got stuck on one zerk fitting and wouldn't let go. I ended up breaking the zerk fitting off. Now I need to extract the threads from the wet bolt.
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I'll call tomorrow.
