A friend of mine, an English-to-Spanish translator, asks what this word means. In a quick search, I couldn't find it anywhere but maybe one of y'all has a clue? Meanwhile, I'll keep hunting. Here's the sentence he sent me:

"Fill reservoirs with grease, then apply grease to shoes using zerks."

When I take my car into the shop for a lube and oil change, the technician produces a long computer print-out of all of the exciting things done to my trusty steed. One of the items on this list of services is lubrication of the parts of the chassis which are supposed to move, one against the other. The technician actually notes how many places he/she squoze grease. These are recorded as "Number of zerks: __"

A zerk is a grease fitting on a machine, a sort of hollow nipple, over which a grease gun is fit, and through which grease is applied to moving parts.

It is also very cool to say aloud.

High-wear engine parts [and other moving parts] have "grease zerks" designed to receive grease to reduce friction.

The passage reading "apply grease to shoes using zerks" means inject grease into the shoe mechanism using the grease zerks designed for that purpose.

I see you posted before I did, Father Steve. "a sort of hollow nipple" is a better description of the entry point than I came up with.

Thanks!

Now, what are shoes? Like brake shoes, is that it?

And since I can't find it in any dictionary, would Zerk be a brand name?

Why anyone would take a picture of zerks is beyond me; why anyone would trouble to then post it on the internet is also beyond me; but someone did. Here ya go, Anna:
http://www.mmsacc-stainless.com/assets/images/zerk.jpg

dja check OneLook? it got me here:

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=zerk

Jackie, that's great! It didn't occur to me (or, obviously, to him) to google images! I'm going to suggest to him that he take the picture with him to an auto maechanic's there in Buenos Aires, describe the function as per above, if need be, and Viola's your aunt!

...and thank you, eta! I hadn't looked at onelook. So it is a guy's name.

Like brake shoes, is that it?

Yes, it appears that a "brake shoe" is the "shoe" referred to in the passage you supplied.

Here is some online advice instructing do-it-yourselfers to apply grease to particular points [grease zerks] in the brake backing plate once the brake shoes have been removed:

Apply brake-shoe grease on the plate at the locations where the shoes move (figure H).

Figure H is a photo where someone is pointing a finger at a grease zerk on a brake shoe backing plate.

Scroll down to Figure H photo.

This photo could be used as an illustration for the passage your friend is translating.

http://snipurl.com/fz01

Oscar U. Zerk was born in Austria but lived in the United States. In the 1920's, while working for the Alamite Corporation, he invented the Zerk fitting. He died in 1968 ... and probably slid effortlessly into his coffin.

[He] probably slid effortlessly into his coffin.

No doubt, there were grease zerks on the hinges.

brake shoes are one sort of mechanical shoe--there are others. (and things other than shoes can need grease.)

late in life (mid thirties) i was enlighted--all the mechanical part names i knew for sewing machines were not specific to sewing machines.. Cams in sewing machines fuctioned just like 'overhead cams' in car engines. (and sewing machine cams were most often 'over head too!)

feed dogs.. ditto.
and drive belts in card feeders were changed and tensions almost identically to drive belts on sewing machined (and not to differently than fan drive belts.)--and most other motor/belt driven mechanism.

and cars (not that i really know much about cars. butth parts: clutches, brakes, bearing; generic, generic, generic!

I loved mechanics!
as a child, i used to annoy my mother and entertain myself by lying under her sewing machine (as she was sewing) to watch the drive (and gears, and ...) by the time i was 12 or so, i knew enough about the machine to help fix it when it jammed.

A combine (the machine used to harvest and thresh wheat) has a shoe -- it is the part where the sieves separate the grain from the chaff.

The shoe is the device from which cards are dealt in card games such as Chemin De Fer. [I learned this by reading James Bond novels as a youngster.]

The shoe on my wife's several cameras is that part by which certain accessories (e.g. a remote flash unit) are attached.

The part of an electric train which contacts an electrified track and draws power therefrom is the train's shoe.

The big solid foundation to which the superstructure of a bridge is attached is its shoe.

There are probably others.

that's a really big shoe!

John Leonard, A Really Big Show, New York: Viking Studio Books, 1992.

There are probably others.

True. There is the Shoe Inn where the old lady moved when she outgrew her Size 8.

Which begs the question, where did the expression "shoe in" come from?
Turns out it's "shoo in", not "shoe in".

Apparently, it was a horseracing term. Corrupt jockeys would hold back their own mounts in favor of the one on which they had all bet.

"The shoo-in is the only horse in the race that is trying to win."

http://snipurl.com/fz4x

There is the Shoe Inn where the old lady moved when she outgrew her Size 8.

Not to mention the Horseshoe Road Inn, where guests on Car Talk stay.

there are probably others

pate a choux


*snerk*

snerk (v.)
v. 1. To emit a brief sound in the intention of snickering, only to have it come out come out sounding more like a snort. 2. To act like a know-it-all. Example usage: When you brag "I know something you don't know", you're said in some communities to be snerking. n. A half smile, half smirk.
http://www.langmaker.com/db/eng_snerk.htm

> *snerk*

What a useful expression! Thanks, Spartakiss :)