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Spring is coming and everyone hates to hear the word ‘service’ but it has to be done. This last weekend we had a warm snap and it reached 68 degrees in February in Indiana. I probably should have spent the day enjoying the weather by going to a park, walking on a people trail, cleaning up the yard or anything outdoors. Instead I thought this would be a perfect time to service the zero turn before spring.

TE5699 Automatic Locking Grease Fitting Coupler

The thing I hate most on my Great Dane mower, beside where the oil filter is located, is having to crawl underneath the 72” deck to grease the spindles.  A couple of weeks ago we received a new product — TE5699 locking grease fitting coupler — in inventory. I was thinking this would be perfect for the Great Dane. It is not big and bulky like most locking great fittings. This unit is real close to the same size as my stock fitting from Lumax so it will work fine on recessed grease fittings that are all over my John Deere tractor.

This is the TE5699 automatic locking grease fitting coupler. It is standard grease fitting threads.I just unscrewed my old fitting from my Lumax pistol grip grease gun and screwed this one on. The locking mechanism works just like an air fitting coupler. You just snap it on to a grease zerk and the ball bearings grip and hold the unit securely. To release you pull back on the knurled sleeve and it comes right off. 

The locking grease fitting coupler does have a pressure relief thumb screw to help in removing the unit if it is under a load. Do not worry about remembering if you closed the relief screw; it will let you know. Unfortunately my mind was not on what I was doing Saturday and kept getting a trail of grease out of the pressure relief hole. It is not hard to figure out if it is open or closed.

Just a couple of close-ups of how the TE5699 grabs the grease zerk. When these first came in, I received a text that they were broken and could not possibly grab a zerk fitting. You just push the coupler onto the zerk until you feel it snap. If it does not snap on to the zerk, push a little harder. I did find that I did need to wipe off my encrusted fittings a little.

Real World Testing

For those playing at home that might be new to our blogs, yes - we really do real world test everything we blog about. This is the TE5699 grease fitting coupler snapped onto my front pivot wheel on the Great Dane Mower. Before someone emails me — yes, I know the mower is filthy and yes, I know I should wipe off the 15 years worth of grease packed on the mower. I keep the mower immaculately serviced but it looks like it is on its last leg. The funny thing is nobody wants to borrow it when theirs will not start in the spring. I am also hoping this keeps the thieves away since anything not nailed down seems to come up missing anymore.

Ok to wrap this blog up… I like the TE5699 but would not want it as my primary end on the grease gun.  I greased my zero turn and compact utility tractor last weekend and found myself using 2 grease guns. On the tractor bucket that only needed a couple of squirts each zerk and was easy to get to, I used my traditional 4 jaw Lumax grease gun. On the zerks that were a little bit of a pain to get to and needed a lot of grease, I used the locking grease fitting.

I counted 6 grease guns in my shop. There were 2 pistol grips, lever action, air, mini for chainsaws and a mini for Ford Model A non locking zerks. I really want to play with a new high end battery operated one, so if a grease gun manufacturer is reading this, you can just send a sample in care of Fred Neff @ Apex Tool Company.

As always. happy wrenching.

—Fred