skpyle

Hello Gentlemen,

I am slowly working on getting the Red Witch back on the road, and am just about ready to install the new boots on the ball joints and outer tie rod ends.

All the joints still have grease in them. Do I clean the grease out and refill with fresh grease? Mobil 1 Synthetic appropriate? Leave what's in there and just install the new boots...?


Thanks!

Seth K. Pyle

The Forgotten On

What is in there may be contaminated and reusing it may risk your ball joints to premature wear.

Use fresh grease. Not sure which one to use though...

dr bob

... or how you plan to get fresh grease in there. I'm interested.

waynestrutt

I use cv joint molybdenum grease with an injector needle. Carefuuly slide the needle under the boot next to the ball stud.

dr bob

I generally don't get that excited about grease in the boot; it's purpose there is to keep abrasive stuff out and not much more. More important is getting fresh grease into the high-pressure area where the ball seats in the cup at the back of the balljoint. No way to get it there next to the boot. The rear of the balljoint, directly opposite the stud, needs a hole tapped for a zerk fitting if you want to "push" grease to where it will do some good. Then, you just need a tiny bit. By the time you push in enough to bleed past the ball and swell the boot a little, it's too much. Think one or two grams at a service, or disassemble the stud and remove the boot for a push-flush from the rear. Most folks don't want to go to that effort, so we end up with balljoints that can't be serviced/ruined.

skpyle

Hmmm...lots to think about.

I had planned on cleaning the grease out from around the stud area of the ball. Then packing it in by hand. After installing the boot, I was going to use a grease injector needle between the boot and stud, as waynestrutt mentioned.

However...dr bob brings up a really good point.

So...going with that, how realistic is it to drill into the sealed cap on the back of a ball joint to install a grease fitting. I have done just this on smaller ATV ball joints. Once I broke through the cap, there was very little room to thread in a grease zerk until it hit the ball.

I'm game to try, though. The grease that is in the ball joints and tie rod ends is not dirty, meaning I don't see any grit. However, it is an olive-drab/grey color. I don't know if that is good or not.


Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming!

Seth K. Pyle

dr bob

The cap on the back is really close to the ball. The end of the installed Zerk would sit right in the middle of the loaded area of the joint, and the metal there isn't thick enough to support a Zerk without getting into the ball. That's why I was interested in how to get the grease at the pressure end of the ball.

[scratches head]

GregBBRD

And keeping shards of metal put of the ball and socket from the drilling and tapping out of the rear plate will be impossible....

Wipe off the old. Use a moly based grease, like Swebco 101. Exercise the ball in the socket from extreme to extreme. Settle for the ball carrying new grease into the socket when it moves.

It's that simple.

skpyle

Now, that makes sense!
Thanks for the clarity, GregBBRD.

I will take this advice and go with it. I will repack the joints with the Swepco and run like that until the front suspension rebuild in the spring.


GregBBRD and dr bob, those are valid points that concerned me. I know I could carefully put a hole in the balljoint cap. I was far less confident of having enough meat and clearance for the zerk fitting, even a shallow one. Definitely not able to keep shards and shavings out of it.


Many thanks to all of your for your opinions, ideas, and perpspective!

Seth K. Pyle