Grease fitting assembly including safety stop

Claim 1

In a hydraulic track adjustor of a type including a cylinder, a piston slidably mounted in the cylinder and cooperating tHerewith to define an expandible and retractable greasereceiving chamber, a first passage, including a threaded bore section beginning at the exterior of the adjustor, leading to the chamber, the bore section having an inner end defining a valve seat facing outwardly, a grease inlet valve fitting threadedly received in the bore section, a relief port intersecting the bore section at a location spaced axially from but located adjacent to the valve seat, said grease inlet valve fitting having an inner end portion dimensioned so as to cooperate with the bore section to define a relief passage leading from the valve seat to the relief port, and said grease inlet valve fitting being movable between a fully inserted position wherein its inner end engages the valve seat and prevents grease from flowing from the chamber to the relief port and a first partially unscrewed position permitting grease to flow from the chamber to the relief port, the improvement comprising: said grease inlet valve fitting having axially extending groove means extending towards the outer end thereof from the inner portion thereof; the axial dimension of said groove means being such that it is not in fluid communication with the outer end of the bore section when the grease inlet valve fitting in is said first partially unscrewed position but is in fluid communication with the outer end of the bore section when the grease inlet valve fitting is unscrewed from said first unscrewed position to a second partially unscrewed position whereby an alternate passage for permitting grease to flow from the chamber is provided for cases when foreign matter prevents grease from flowing through the relief port.