Anyone know the type of zerk fittings our trucks use?

[Pryme]

So I greased my zerks last night and that one that’s super annoying to get to(is it pitman or idler? Closest to the pass side center) is stuck. Just getting to that one is a pita and it wasn’t taking grease. Plus those lines are basically right in the way. 
I want to take that one out and replace with a 90 just for ease of maint. Anyone know the specs? Thanks. 
 

Edited October 8, 2025 by Pryme

[AndrewF]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00180J5DY?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

 

I bought this.  Only used it once so far but seemed a lot easier.

[Pryme]

6 hours ago, AndrewF said:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00180J5DY?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

 

I bought this.  Only used it once so far but seemed a lot easier.

So you attached that o that one hard to reach zerk fitting and you now can pump it full to a remote location down low? So it is a screw in type it looks like. 

[bruceb58]

I can get to all of mine pretty easily. One or two I just have to turn the wheels one way or the other. I bought 90 degree zerks in anticipation of an issue but didn't need them.

[AndrewF]

3 hours ago, Pryme said:

So you attached that o that one hard to reach zerk fitting and you now can pump it full to a remote location down low? So it is a screw in type it looks like. 

Yeah unscrew the existing zerk out, screw in that part, then route it down to the sway bar mount. Then you just pump grease in from there

[Pryme]

10 hours ago, bruceb58 said:

I can get to all of mine pretty easily. One or two I just have to turn the wheels one way or the other. I bought 90 degree zerks in anticipation of an issue but didn't need them.

Yeah I got all nine too but now the one that’s the most annoying imo is blocked and not taking grease so if I have to remove it I’m either putting a 90 on there or maybe this hose kit. 

[Chuck FB]

4 hours ago, Pryme said:

Yeah I got all nine too but now the one that’s the most annoying imo is blocked and not taking grease so if I have to remove it I’m either putting a 90 on there or maybe this hose kit. 

So on the passenger side you have the pitman idler setup, the grease zerk that is not taking grease, is that the upper one that greases the internal shaft of the idler pitman assembly or is it on the end of the idler pitman arm that attaches to the cross bar assembly between the two tie rods. That hose assembly which I thought I would need to buy to make life easier, for now I passed on it as I realized once I had my truck in my hands that its not bad to reach up to get the grease gun onto the upper zerk on the housing assembly. What is the total pain is the lower zerk on the ldler arm or on the steering box pit man arm as the steering has to be manipulated to get at those darned things. I assumed that the zerk would be a 6mm but after trying one and just about stripping out the threads without even trying I put in a 1/4-28 tapered zerk and yes a 90 degree unit into both those locations and that has made life way easier. The fact that I have 36" long hoses on my grease guns helps out a lot as well rather than struggling with one short hose. 

 

That is odd about the zerk not taking grease, that is not a common thing to happen on a suspension with that new of a truck that isn't living in salt and mud and guessing it has not been hit mechanically that it ruined the top of the zerk. 

Edited October 9, 2025 by Chuck FB

[Pryme]

2 hours ago, Chuck FB said:

So on the passenger side you have the pitman idler setup, the grease zerk that is not taking grease, is that the upper one that greases the internal shaft of the idler pitman assembly or is it on the end of the idler pitman arm that attaches to the cross bar assembly between the two tie rods. That hose assembly which I thought I would need to buy to make life easier, for now I passed on it as I realized once I had my truck in my hands that its not bad to reach up to get the grease gun onto the upper zerk on the housing assembly. What is the total pain is the lower zerk on the ldler arm or on the steering box pit man arm as the steering has to be manipulated to get at those darned things. I assumed that the zerk would be a 6mm but after trying one and just about stripping out the threads without even trying I put in a 1/4-28 tapered zerk and yes a 90 degree unit into both those locations and that has made life way easier. The fact that I have 36" long hoses on my grease guns helps out a lot as well rather than struggling with one short hose. 

 

That is odd about the zerk not taking grease, that is not a common thing to happen on a suspension with that new of a truck that isn't living in salt and mud and guessing it has not been hit mechanically that it ruined the top of the zerk. 

I think it’s the lower one you mentioned. On the top of the arm. You can’t see it you basically have to reach up and feel for it if you’re laying on your back looking up. I actually had the wheel straight but I suppose yes, if I turn the wheel it would probably help. I got to all the others easily. I did take my metal skid plate off though to more easily access it all. 
I’ll have to look up the size zerk you just mentioned. 

[Chuck FB]

3 hours ago, Pryme said:

I think it’s the lower one you mentioned. On the top of the arm. You can’t see it you basically have to reach up and feel for it if you’re laying on your back looking up. I actually had the wheel straight but I suppose yes, if I turn the wheel it would probably help. I got to all the others easily. I did take my metal skid plate off though to more easily access it all. 
I’ll have to look up the size zerk you just mentioned. 

And hopefully I made it clear enough that its the upper zerk that is on the upper part of the cast body for the idler arm assembly that bolts to the frame rail, its the one that is meant to have that short hose kit installed onto it as its zerk doesn't move as the steering wheel is turned, I didn't see a need to swap it to a different angled zerk as nothing is in the way of it fortunately. The actual idler arm itself or the pitman arm on the left hand frame rail move so they can't have a hose attached to those zerks. Those small threads on that size of zerk fitting is not that hard to strip at the best of times or for that matter twist off, they are a dinky little thing and have to be careful with how much force one puts on when snugging them up. I don't know if there are any changes with the pickups in the last few years but I was happy to find that I can reach that upper idler arm bracket zerk although its hard to see anything when ones arm is stuck up there but can feel the zerk and put the grease gun onto it and hopefully the grease gun end puts the grease into the zerk and not squirting out all over the area of the zerk. The fun of grease gun ends, some brands/types are crap and not worth buying. But anyway after I put the two 90 degree fittings into the end of the arms as it were, I didn't have to do anything with the steering other than just leave it pointed straight ahead and I haven't seen a need to pull off any skid plate at all ( with how my truck is anyway )

[Pryme]

12 hours ago, Chuck FB said:

And hopefully I made it clear enough that its the upper zerk that is on the upper part of the cast body for the idler arm assembly that bolts to the frame rail, its the one that is meant to have that short hose kit installed onto it as its zerk doesn't move as the steering wheel is turned, I didn't see a need to swap it to a different angled zerk as nothing is in the way of it fortunately. The actual idler arm itself or the pitman arm on the left hand frame rail move so they can't have a hose attached to those zerks. Those small threads on that size of zerk fitting is not that hard to strip at the best of times or for that matter twist off, they are a dinky little thing and have to be careful with how much force one puts on when snugging them up. I don't know if there are any changes with the pickups in the last few years but I was happy to find that I can reach that upper idler arm bracket zerk although its hard to see anything when ones arm is stuck up there but can feel the zerk and put the grease gun onto it and hopefully the grease gun end puts the grease into the zerk and not squirting out all over the area of the zerk. The fun of grease gun ends, some brands/types are crap and not worth buying. But anyway after I put the two 90 degree fittings into the end of the arms as it were, I didn't have to do anything with the steering other than just leave it pointed straight ahead and I haven't seen a need to pull off any skid plate at all ( with how my truck is anyway )

Yeah I find that stationary one up front closest to the front of the truck to be fine to get to. 
 

I put an order in for a few items that should make the job and any other grease job easier. 
 

A lockNlube coupler with the 90deg attachment also and a 36” flexzilla hose. 
 

Thanks for the info Chuck. 

[Chuck FB]

26 minutes ago, Pryme said:

Yeah I find that stationary one up front closest to the front of the truck to be fine to get to. 
 

I put an order in for a few items that should make the job and any other grease job easier. 
 

A lockNlube coupler with the 90deg attachment also and a 36” flexzilla hose. 
 

Thanks for the info Chuck. 

It can be hard to relay something by words alone vs a photo. And yes having a long flex hose on a grease gun makes some jobs way easier or actually possible at all, never used to be able to find longer hoses and I would use a brass joint between two 18" hoses to make what I wanted. I actually have a funky 90 degree grease gun end ( not sure what brand it is ) but I've never even tried it out as its supposed to be able to slide under the head of the zerk in its groove slot and has a neoprene seal surface with a hole in it to shoot the grease though. I have other adapters I've used over the years for weird grease points that are made for a tapered needle type end or a cup style that reaches into a space too small ( like some ujoints ) to seal onto the tip of a zerk. 

 

I look at some of those not easy to access zerks on pickups like this and really wonder how many shops even grease them if its an oil change that has a low ball price that often the vehicle ( half ton and cars/suv's ) have no grease points at all. It doesn't give me much confidence that the HD truck coming onto the oil rack gets the special attention it was made to have ... just my sense of it. If a person is able to do it themselves, then you know its been done.

Edited October 10, 2025 by Chuck FB

[Pryme]

So I did eventually get that zerk up top the one on the idler arm centerlink. 
but I have to say I wasn’t impressed with the lock n lube coupler. I sent it back to Amazon. 
Most reviews raved about it and maybe it would be great out in the open but for my use under this truck it was bulky and not impressive. 
also for 35.00 I thought it would be made in America. As their site talks about American made blah blah nope it’s made in South Africa. The simple 90 they sell is made in India. 
 

if I’m spending that coin and it’s made overseas, I’ll just buy a 12.00 one from Amazon. Which I am eying up due to it being much slimmer than the lock n lube. 
 

I kept the 36” flexzilla hose though. Nice hose. 

[Chuck FB]

1 hour ago, Pryme said:

So I did eventually get that zerk up top the one on the idler arm centerlink. 
but I have to say I wasn’t impressed with the lock n lube coupler. I sent it back to Amazon. 
Most reviews raved about it and maybe it would be great out in the open but for my use under this truck it was bulky and not impressive. 
also for 35.00 I thought it would be made in America. As their site talks about American made blah blah nope it’s made in South Africa. The simple 90 they sell is made in India. 
 

if I’m spending that coin and it’s made overseas, I’ll just buy a 12.00 one from Amazon. Which I am eying up due to it being much slimmer than the lock n lube. 
 

I kept the 36” flexzilla hose though. Nice hose. 

I have never used a lock and lube coupler and one of my nephews was trying to pawn one off on me and I don't even know why he had bought it but anyway as often is the case with equipment I was greasing it was hard enough to get contorted around to the zerk with a flex hose and a normal grease gun end so I already knew I would run into many no go situations and just never bothered to buy one. I can imagine they would work well for some types of equipment where its easy access to the zerks and can snap it on and get it back off easy etc, I guess I could have thrown one onto one of my various grease guns as I shrug my shoulders. In saying that I have sure had a lot of dud type grease gun ends over the years, their design did not seal properly for zerks that take quite a bit of pressure to push the grease into the assembly and sometimes would puke the grease gun ends guts out in the process. A lot of wasted grease squirting out past the zerk with crappy gun ends. Two different brands/models of typical externally looking grease gun ends I found that worked as well as anything were the ends they put on the Milwaukee M18 battery grease gun and fairly sure it has a rubber type seal inside of it to seal onto the zerks, the other one is an Alemite P308730 . Both brands are stupid expensive here in Canada but they did what I wanted them to and I suspect part of that is their 10000 psi pressure rating aside from the internal sealing system. 

 

Not claiming you need grease gun ends like that for greasing a truck with zerks that take grease with relative low back pressure but go onto a farm forum and most are bitching about all the crap grease gun ends that are on the market, it never used to be like this but poor quality crap being made overseas probably has a lot to do with it. 

 

And the hose length theme, yes once one has the longer hose its hard to go back to some of the short piddly hoses some grease guns come with. 

 

Now that you having gone through greasing all 9 zerks on your truck, you can probably see why I have this sense that some lube bays are very likely to hit the ones they can get to easy assuming they are even told to grease anything, and skip the ones that are difficult which are the pitman arm and the idler arm and idler arm housing shaft. And most vehicle owners would never know unless down the road a shop that was replacing all their worn out steering parts told them they were worn out due to lack of being lubricated. 

Edited October 17, 2025 by Chuck FB

[Pryme]

16 hours ago, Chuck FB said:

I have never used a lock and lube coupler and one of my nephews was trying to pawn one off on me and I don't even know why he had bought it but anyway as often is the case with equipment I was greasing it was hard enough to get contorted around to the zerk with a flex hose and a normal grease gun end so I already knew I would run into many no go situations and just never bothered to buy one. I can imagine they would work well for some types of equipment where its easy access to the zerks and can snap it on and get it back off easy etc, I guess I could have thrown one onto one of my various grease guns as I shrug my shoulders. In saying that I have sure had a lot of dud type grease gun ends over the years, their design did not seal properly for zerks that take quite a bit of pressure to push the grease into the assembly and sometimes would puke the grease gun ends guts out in the process. A lot of wasted grease squirting out past the zerk with crappy gun ends. Two different brands/models of typical externally looking grease gun ends I found that worked as well as anything were the ends they put on the Milwaukee M18 battery grease gun and fairly sure it has a rubber type seal inside of it to seal onto the zerks, the other one is an Alemite P308730 . Both brands are stupid expensive here in Canada but they did what I wanted them to and I suspect part of that is their 10000 psi pressure rating aside from the internal sealing system. 

 

Not claiming you need grease gun ends like that for greasing a truck with zerks that take grease with relative low back pressure but go onto a farm forum and most are bitching about all the crap grease gun ends that are on the market, it never used to be like this but poor quality crap being made overseas probably has a lot to do with it. 

 

And the hose length theme, yes once one has the longer hose its hard to go back to some of the short piddly hoses some grease guns come with. 

 

Now that you having gone through greasing all 9 zerks on your truck, you can probably see why I have this sense that some lube bays are very likely to hit the ones they can get to easy assuming they are even told to grease anything, and skip the ones that are difficult which are the pitman arm and the idler arm and idler arm housing shaft. And most vehicle owners would never know unless down the road a shop that was replacing all their worn out steering parts told them they were worn out due to lack of being lubricated. 

Well said and I’m sure my coupler which is a harbor freight is not great. I’ll deal with it next year since that’s probably the next time I’ll need to address the zerks with how few miles I drive the white whale. 
 

I couldn’t get the bulky lock n lube onto that lower ball joint at the bottom of each wheel. Very annoying. 

Edited October 18, 2025 by Pryme

[Chuck FB]

1 hour ago, Pryme said:

Well said and I’m sure my coupler which is a harbor freight is not great. I’ll deal with it next year since that’s probably the next time I’ll need to address the zerks with how few miles I drive the white whale. 
 

I couldn’t get the bulky lock n lube onto that lower ball joint at the bottom of each wheel. Very annoying. 

There is so little room for even a normal sized grease gun end to fit in the space on the lower ball joints ( I would say poor designing involved ) that I was having issues with a worn grease gun end that was not sealing well unless it was straight on and I gave up and threw on a new gun end to get it to seal properly.