I just had MOOG greasable lower ball joints installed, but the grease zurk would hit the bracket. Tech is telling me to leave them off and just use a needle gun to regrease the joints. With the conditions I drive in (lots of dirt roads) is this safe for the ball joint? For those of you who have put the greasables in, what did you do?

 

I have the same ones and have no problems,sounds like theyshould have looked where tho zark went before putting them in!I did mine myself so i took that into account,good luck,but i wouldnt leave the zerk out at least put some kind of plug in the hole!
Zack

 

Heres some pics of minehttp://s249.photobucket.com/albums/g...05dodge002.jpghttp://s249.photobucket.com/albums/g...05dodge002.jpg

 

I just went down to napa and spent a couple bucks and got the 90 degree angled fittings.

 

The directions that come with the ball joints say to position the zerk pointing straight forward. Sounds like your guy got it wrong.

Don't use a needle and puncture the rubber! Sheesh, your "tech" sounds like the wrong guy to do the work. The whole idea is to improve things not mess them up in a different way.

 

I hear ya, Raspy.

Now, they told me they tried multiple positions and couldn't get the zurk in without it hitting. Guess I'll have to try and pull them and stick them in like Spooled has them. Tech left one hole facing forward, and one facing to the rear.

Personally I think the Tech was frusterated. I took them in to have them done because I didn't have time. They spent about 4 hours per joint (8hrs per side) because they (the original joints) were rusted in so bad. They ended up breaking another car's driver side window out when one of them exploded while they were trying to heat up the bracket.

 

Sounds like time to find another shop...

 

Yep.

Broke out a window when it exploded?

 

Aparently when they were heating up the bracket, it caused the grease to expand and built up enough pressure, that it blew apart.

That was the story, anyway...

 

can't comment about shop's methods or placement of zerts, but it's perfectly fine to use needle grease tip to re-grease joints.

another option room permitting is to use a flat cap screw. exchange with zerts when ever a grease port is needed. this is often done with Ujoints, where a grease needle is not an option.

in fact... if you had been regularly injecting grease with a needle. your ball joints would probably not needed to be replaced. If your lower ball joints froze up, then your uppers are totally dry.

fill em up with grease BEFORE damage is done and they will last almost forever. this goes for all tie rod ends and wheel bearings too.

 

When i replaced my ball joints with the napa brand they had the zerk in the middle of the joint pointing up. I was afraid that the ujoint would hit but it never has. I also went to oreilly and bought a side fitting for my grease gun and has worked perfectly.

As far as greasing with a needle i would say that you can do that with a true sealed rubber. The rubbers on mine weren't truly sealed so all you would be doing is putting grease underneath the joint because the rubber would allow the grease to escape before it gets to the top. In my opinion I would want grease on top too but thats just me.

 

Although many people do it, it is against industry standards to heat ANY steering component in Canada. I myself would get them to rectify the grease zerk orientation, no matter what the cost to them. You paid your money and it should be done right.

 

The reason I decided to replace them is that the truck couldn't be aligned in spec, because one of the ball joints was bent, I believe. So I decided to have them all replaced, instead of just one. None of them were frozen, just couldn't get the darn thing aligned. I was advised to get the adjustable uppers, because I will probably get a lift and bigger tires down the road.

I used the truck as a work vehicle for a long time. One job site I was at for 8 months, I had to commute 40 miles of really rough unpaved roads for half the trip, not to mention the job-site itself. I really messed up the truck on that job, and thereafter demanded a company truck or I was walking. I got the company truck, but the damage was done. I'm sure that's where the ball joints were hosed up, along with my driveshaft, u-joints, tranny and transfer case. Monthly vehicle allowance wasn't enough to cover all the damage done, so I'm getting things done one at a time. Driveshaft, u-joints, and ball joints are done, (need to realign the passenger lower ball-joint tho).

The tranny leaks like a siv and burns up tranny oil in about 5k miles. Transfer case is leaking too. Goerend Transmission is next on the list of repairs

I have the truck pretty much parked at this point untill the transmission can be replaced. Makes a nice tax write-off too.

 

Had that happen to me once on a stubborn ball joint. I think our secretary wet herself. It sounded like a shotgun blast.