This is for any suspension gurus cause I'm out of ideas

Well its been a year since I changed my U-Joints to greasable and my ball joints to adjustable and there done already! There spicer so there not some cheap crap. Now the alignment is good and there is no unusual tire wear, I dont do any off roading 90% is all highway driving, at the same time the U-Joints on the front drive shaft are done too and I had that rebuild at the same time last year. I have Skyjacker D25 front springs, Thuren TB & Bilstein 5100 front shocks.
So my question is whats eating up these parts ??

Any info will be appreciated.

 

How many miles since rebuild?
Which tires/tire size?
How many miles between re-greasing them?

Just some ???

AlpineRAM

 

Its been about 20K
Stock tires 265/75/16
I grease them about every 5K

 

Sounds good...

Did you do the rebuild yourself?
I have seen folks lose a single needle in a u-joint and the joint was gone very quickly. (This was a "professional")

Are the balljoints also gone?

 

Nope I didnt do the job myself I have a mechanic friend that did them but I helped him do them. Yup ball joints, U-Joints & Front drive shaft U-Joints are done.

 

Hmm, that's really strange...

I'm kind of stumped- never had such a massive failure after such a short time.
I could imagine that if your tires were balanced that badly that you would have complained.

I will stay away from the greasable u-joints etc even though I live in a region that uses lots of road salt.
(The stockers hold up quite well IMO, and they are sealed)
Did you clean the zerk everytime before greasing (No I don't think you are an ######, but this is the main reason for failures on greasable stuff) and what type of grease did you use?
I do not think that there is something in there that would be able to exert suck a force as to wear down the U-joints and the balljoints in such a short time without making the truck bounce around like mad while driving (like driving in 4wd on dry roads and turning tight)
And the front driveshaft is really astounding- does your truck have the central axle disconnect? (It's a little vacuum servo on the pass side of the front axle-if you are in 2wd you should be able to turn the front driveshaft by hand easily- and the driveshaft is almost at standstill when you are in 2wd, so why did it wear down?)

Puzzled

AlpineRAM

 

An 02.5 should have the CAD Dana 60, I believe. It almost sounds like the driveshafts are turning and creating bind in the front end, however there should be some telltale signs of this, bucking around turns, decreased fuel mileage, possibly the 4WD light comes on, etc.
I would start from the outside in and check the wheel bearings, look for binding when turning the wheels lock to lock, check that the driveshaft isn't turning with the wheels, get the part #'s of everything you changed out and make sure you got the right parts, tire balance, missing needle bearings upon disassembly etc. This is kind of wierd there aren't better signs of something loose/ broken. Post your findings.

Kurt

 

The wrong kind of grease? (Not tacky enough) and not enough grease? Do you rotate the steering wheel ONLY when you are moving? My guess is that you use 4x4 alot ( more then most of us) and have to turn full stop to stop? If you make your turns 6 point instead of 3 point turns? Easier on the u-joints.

 

I have a 02 and it doesn't have the CAD. Anyways, are you sure your alignment is good? I'm not sure which way, either + or -, but if you have to much caster dialed in, it'll eat up balljoints. Also, if your mechanic pressed the new balljoints in by pressing on the ball stud coming out of the joint, it could have compressed the nylon bushing in them enough that they probably had play from day one. When going down the road, the weight of the truck is supported by all 4 ball joints, but when you press one in like mentioned above, your exerting a lot of force on just that one balljoint. I think thats what happened to me when I did mine the first time and they only lasted 3500miles till they had a lot of play in them. My new set is fine so far.

As for the u-joints, did they turn nice and free after he installed them? I've installed some before and after pressing them in with a bench vise, they were to tight to move by hand and I had to give the ears of the yokes a few good whacks with a hammer so they would spread out just slightly, not even enough to see with the naked eye, but it was enough that it freed the joint up. I've also installed some and had a needle bearing fall into the bottom of the cap, and when I installed it, the ujoint would bind up or not move at all and I had to disassemble it again and put the needle back in. Also, did he grease everything after he installed it?

 

I read on here somewhere that the 02.5 is what they are referring the CAD axled 2nd gens. It may not be official designation. I've done u-joints before and had the binding like mentioned above. A slight adjustment can do wonders. You've got to check them for ease of movement every time. They shouldn't bind at all.

If your tires are wearing evenly your alignment might be ok. I'd get it checked out at another shop. When they did my front end I brought it back and said its not right. They had gotten the rack recalibrated and when they checked it out it was considerably out of whack. This was all in the same week. Afterwards it drives like a dream.

I could see a caster problem putting a lot of force on the ball joints as stated.

Kurt

 

I'd definately have the alignment checked to see if the caster is off. Even if its way off, your not gonna see any difference in tire wear.

 

Thx for all the suggestions.

When the ball joints & U-Joints were installed they were tested to make sure they were in properly.
Front driver hub was replaced a month ago, passenger side Hub replaced 2 yrs ago.
Type of grease is a good question I'll have to check the tube its been in my grease gun for awhile. Suggestions on grease?
As you can imagine it does bind in 4x4 turning left & right and theres a weird vibration from the front drive shaft.
I will go & re-check the alignment never thought it could be off so soon.
I only use 4x4 when it snows and I engage it in the summer once & a while.

I guess when i take them off i'll inspect them & see what happen, for now I'm waiting on warrenty so I can get them replaced hopefully soon b4 the next snow fall. But i will be going to the driveshaft rebuilder and see what he says about it.

thx all again I'll keep u posted

 

Everyone that has used Schaeffer's grease (not sure which one though, they have so many) swears by it. Its some really tacky stuff.

 

it's pretty hard to get the "wrong" grease. GL2 is what i have been using for years... wheel bearings, u joints and ball joints don't require any thing different

 

well I did not read through this entire thread and this may have already been covered but how are your hub/spindle bearings, if they are bad they will tear up everything else, just like when the bal joints go bad they kill the bearings