The grease gun arrived yesterday. It was a bit of a rocky new owner experience. The included battery was completely dead so the first thing I did was pop it onto my existing Milwaukee charger. I was immediately treated to a blinking red/green light which indicates a battery failure. I tried it several times with the same result. Meanwhile, the charger works fine with my two existing 5.0AH batteries. So just for giggles and grins I unpacked the new charger and gave it a try. The battery started charging just fine. Is that weird or what? Both chargers are the same model number.
Next step was to remove the grease coupler in preparation for installing my existing Lock 'N Lube. Wow... I chucked the big nut in the vice and attempted to loosen the coupler. That baby was so tight that I honestly thought my wrench was going to snap in two. It finally gave way and I could see it was NPT threads. Milwaukee had it so tight that it actually had some damaged threads towards the end of the coupler. And they expect folks to swap couplers using just hand tools?
Next I figured it would be a good idea to loosen the jaws on the factory grease coupler in case I wanted to use it for anything. I chucked the hex portion in the vise and went to work trying to turn the collar. I tried two different pairs of pliers without success and was thinking this may be one of those non-adjustable couplers. As a last resort I brought out the 20" channel locks, clamped down with all the force I could muster and just before the metal barrel of the coupler tore in two pieces it broke free. Really? I mean really?
The last step was to install my existing Lock 'N Lube. It threaded on just fine and tightened up okay but wouldn't you know... that GIANT hex nut that Milwaukee used on the end of the grease hose interfered with the LnL release lever making it so the tip would not extend far enough to allow it to slip over a grease zerk. About this time I look over at my old lever-style grease gun and it has a big smile on its face. Out come the channel locks again and I was able to "flatten" the LnL release handle enough that it had more clearance over the giant nut. I find the LnL coupler isn't quite as nimble with that big heavy spring that Milwaukee wraps around the end of the grease hose. I'm sure it is not a problem when greasing excavators but it sure makes flexing the hose a bit more difficult.
I loaded a grease tube, primed the gun and proceeded to give it a try greasing the loader. It is mighty sweet but the LnL still isn't going on/off the grease zerks as easily as it should. I think I need to bend the release lever a bit more.
Otherwise........... everything went smooth as silk.
