MidTNBrad

I enjoy riding my bikes and I enjoy working on them. I was doing some regular maintenance on one this weekend and had to do a job I dreaded doing -- repacking my Speedplay Zeros with grease. That is the most frustrating, messy hack of a job I can think of. It sounds pretty easy: remove the screw holding the dust cap on, put a grease gun up to the port and shoot grease in there until the old grease is flushed out the back. No matter how hard I push on the dust cap, fresh grease shoots out the dust cover. I get some of the old grease to flush out as Speedplay says it should (out the back), but it seems about 10 times more comes out of the dust cover. Am I doing something wrong? I use this Astro grease gun which seems to be the same design as the Park Tool and other folks on BF claim it works just fine for them. Does anyone else have this issue?

guadzilla

I find it helps to squeeze the grease gun or syringe gently. Also try rotating the pedals as you do so. I do sometimes still get some grease blowback, so it cant be avoided entirely.

topflightpro

That sometimes happens. As long as it's packed with grease and not spinning freely, you're generally good.

WhyFi

I'll get a little bit of blow-back, but not too much (and I'm just using a dosing syringe from the drug store). One thing that I used to do, that might help you, is to take the pedal off of the cranks and stand the pedal on end (on the ground or work bench) when re-greasing. That gave me the ability to lean in to it a little more.

silverado8405

So much that I made a clamp to screw the needle into the dust cap to keep pressure on it so I can rotate the peddle and operate my grease gun without having grease squirt out the dust cap at the speed of light and make a mess everywhere. Turned a 3 minute job into a 10 minute one because I don’t have to clean grease up as much. For reference I don’t have one of the little handheld grease guns but a full size one so it’s impossible to maintain pressure on the dust cap.

MidTNBrad

That's the coolest and most terrifying thing I've seen on BF. Looks like it would work though!

biker222

I also have experience blow back out of cap.
I apply a fair amount of force from gun to port and rotate pedal between applications.
When done greasing I rotate pedal 10-20x and wipe excess grease on axle side as it discharges.
Be careful on cap side when forcing grease as it can shoot out in a stream into your eyes or other places.
I now cap my hand with paper towel around port to prevent this.

randallr

Original Poster; I wonder what viscosity grease you're pumping, and how fast it's pumping? I use Phil Wood green grease at room temp in a Pedro's grease gun (which pumps a pretty small volume at a time). I get no blowback.

MidTNBrad

I can't remember what type of grease it is. It's off-white in color and thick but no thicker than what I would think any other grease would be. It may be Finish Line.

tak2

I have also had an issue with a fine thread leaking around the dust cover. I replaced the dust covers with new which were inexpensive and pumped the grease in a bit slower turning the pedal and it worked without issue.

Noctilux.95

Did you remove the cap from the tip of the grease gun?

justonwo

I guess this reminds me I should probably grease my Speedplay pedals on my Cervelo for the first time in 10 years. Ouch!

MidTNBrad

Yes, it has a small tip and no cap. Grease come out in a very thin ribbon if I just pump it.

Sy Reene

FWIW, the speedplay grease gun kit I got a while ago, came with Sta Lube marine grease. Random thought/question though; would there theoretically be something better I should use if I installed a Ti spindle into the pedal body? Can't say I've had any issues though.

Bob Ross

No, and Yes.