another grease topic

[CBrahs]

What is the best way to grease the ball joints? I is expensive to change them when they dry up and go bad and there are not any grease fittings on the stock ones. I had a shop tell me to use a needle and poke a hole in the boot, shove the needle to the rear of the boot and fill from the back of the boot and pull the needle as you go. That is all fine and dandy till the boot purges grease all over the damn truck.

 

[DBentley]

I did that with my 96 and the ball joints lasted a long time. I May try it with the 06. If the dam things were greasable (and the fittings could be reached by an average human) not like the silly front cv joint setup we could make them last for ever.

 

[rbattelle]

I have used the needle method a few times on my truck. I fill the boot until it bulges. Repeat once or twice a year.

I have my doubts whether this actually has any effect at all. The only reason I bother is because, well, "it can't hurt".

Ryan

 

[Dieselnerd]

I did it on my '96 too and the new owner has almost 130K on it and just had the ball joints checked. They were still good.

 

[CBrahs]

Thanks guys, just have a hang up on poking a hole in a rubber boot and have it purge all over the truck. going to buy the needle set this week so I can keep her lubed!

 

[CTRice]

Why can't you just drill and tap a hole in the bottom of the joint and add a grease fitting?? Carefull attention to the chips from drilling should result in a clean job. I plan on doing this on my 2006 3500 at my next oil change. You could also do this for the upper joint. I saw this approach on another thread and it looked like the way to go to me.



Chuck

 

[DBentley]

Tapping sounds good but isnt there just a thin disk of sheet metal in the area that you would tap ?

 

[RHestand]

IMO you should not drill a u-joint. It creates a stress-riser that weakens it.

In my previous drag racing days, I would not buy a u-joint with a zerk fitting installed due to myself and buddies that have had failures that always went across that hole. (When there was enough left to analyse. )

I'm not aware of any high performance u-joint manufactures that make one with with zerk fitting.

There are probably other TDR guys that have had these problems, considering the kind of torque these Cummins are capable of making.

RHestand

 

[RHestand]

I'm sorry I misread balljoint as u-joint.

RHestand

 

[CBrahs]

Let me know on how the drilling and tapping of the sheet metal cover for the balljoints. I would be interested in doing this to make them last a bit longer. I friend of mine (quad cab dually not sure of the year) just had to have his totally replaced and cost over a grand.