I’ve been dealing with a cheap grease gun from an auto parts store for too many years. The pump action doesn’t push much grease and the grease melts easily in the gun. I’d like to know what you use - both for a gun and the grease on your C3 and other equipment.
*Additionally, do you prefer a long leaver pump action, or a one handed trigger action?

 

Can you take a picture of what you are using?

Grease Type: Any grease that meets the proper certifications (pretty much all of the ones at a parts store) would be fine. Of course you're going to have the "believers" here who are going to say, "It has to be Redline...or XYZ.. or the only brand I've ever used in my life ..everything else is crap!" Yeah, there are premium greases, which one might consider. I'm not sure it'll gain you a whole lot on a seldom-driven vehicle. But for the most part anything out there today on the shelf should work fine, esp name brand products.

Switching Greases: The KEY thing provided it meets spec, is consistency. Use the same grease all the time. And do it as needed. Don't mix ...and don't let any shops used their mystery grease. The science is ....different mfgrs use different soap carriers and not all are compatible with each other. Most are, but some grease added to others can make the combined grease very 'watery'. I've seen this. Then it loses lubricity and you have nothing. Stick to one good grease. But if you DO make a change, check for compatibility first. Then just push enough new grease through to get as much of the old grease out that you can.

What do I use? I personally bought a whole case of Citgo grease from our local gas station like 30 years ago and I'm still working on those. About 6-8yrs ago I bought a few more cartridges to add back into the box. There's probably enough till I die. It's a dark gray grease. That's my main grease and it goes into all my vehicles, mowers tractors, machinery. Nobody else gets to stick their grease in my zerks! But I also have another grease gun with Mobil-1 synthetic grease in it and another with blonde grease, which I don't use much but when I get into the 'right' need.

Grease guns. I have 4 grease guns. Two are pistol-type, two are lever action. Two have bleed valves (preferred) and two don't. The air bleed valves are nice, but a guy can work with the ones which don't...just fine IMO. I grew up on a farm...where we had several grease guns (same grease brand though). Those were all lever action really nice ones. They were a pain in the butt to operate. I personally prefer the pistol grip type. Lever action sometimes you need a third-hand to operate if you have to really finagle the tip to the zerk, and you end up using your leg and get your pants dirty. Pretty much all grease guns seem to get slimy on the outside in my experience. I'd love to hear what others say. Maybe there's something new. Even the Mobil-1 synthetic grease in my one gun gets slimy at the top. Maybe it's the worst of the bunch even! I just wipe the housing clean and dry as needed. Maybe spray some carb cleaner on a rag to get dry every once in a while. Keep the tip clean. Store in a not-hot space. Maybe yours is worse and there's a bad seal at the head(??).

Pumping: If it's not pumping fine...it is more than likely the zerks themselves are plugged. You can unscrew and replace or toss the zerk/s in a small can of solvent or gasoline, and use a small wire to clean old grease out of the back of the zerk. They should work fine after that. As far as the grease guns go, one of mine is a nice somewhat expensive older Lincoln grease gun. But the other two (I actually have 4 grease guns)... are cheapies from China. They all work just fine, and they also all get slimy around the top threads and the bottom. I usually clean off and then spray some carb cleaner on a paper towel and get them good and de-greased every once in a while.

Show us what you're using, gun and grease ...esp the certifications...

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I use a Dewalt battery powered grease gun. Very pricey but I between my cars, trailers , lawn equipment, and 21 zerk fittings on my boat dock, etc, I "justified" the expense. Truly an outstanding grease gun.

 

I was going to say in my initial post the Milwaukee GG looked pretty good too, as I've seen it in the stores. But I haven't tried. Maybe search it out if you dont mind dropping some money vs wiping the grease off...ha ha

 

FYI, if you don't use your gun regularly, the grease in the hose/tube can thicken up and you think that the gun is shot. Some moly grease I had became very hard and blocked my flex hose. Remove it and clean it, before buying a new one.

 

Properly stored - five years. Source: Mobil.

and not that I don’t have some out of date stuff in inventory.

 

I looked at DeWalt and Milwaukee grease guns a little more closely today in the store. It's been a couple yrs since I looked at them. They're bigger and heavier than I remember. They'd probably be great for industrial applications where a guy had a lot of greasing to do, or for construction machinery which have a LOT of grease-points.

I don't know if they would 'not' get oily around the end though.