Ball joints

[burnt_servo]

moog joints only lasted me a year in my car ..... and i replaced them twice with moog joints  ( a year with both sets  ) .

i put in some really cheap italian joints ( like 12.00 each ) 2 years ago and they are still really tight ,   aproaching 45,000 - 50,000 km in total  on the italian joints  .  maybe 7,000  - 10,000 km on each set of moogs .

at least i'm not the only one with ball joint issues  :lol: is your car lowered any???

maybe i should get an 'italian tune-up' done  :lol:  :twisted:

it was stock until last year , when i cut a 6 inch chunk out of each front coil to even the car out  ( not 6 inches height wise , a 6 inch piece of the coil spring was taken out ) .

this dropped the front about 1 inch and leveled out the car ..... the ass end was sagging really badly even with the heavy duty "cargo " springs in the rear .

[zukgod1]

Ive taken new ball joints with no Zerk and drilled/ tapped and installed a Zerk.

Sometimes it doesn't work to well as there are no groves for the grease to travel. I have noticed however that after some time the ones that wouldn't take grease now would, like 10k miles or so. I suspect they loosen up a bit and leave some room for the grease to squeeze through.
I also grease them unloaded as in I lift the car with the wheels hanging.

just a idea..

[jtanguay]

Ive taken new ball joints with no Zerk and drilled/ tapped and installed a Zerk.

Sometimes it doesn't work to well as there are no groves for the grease to travel. I have noticed however that after some time the ones that wouldn't take grease now would, like 10k miles or so. I suspect they loosen up a bit and leave some room for the grease to squeeze through.
I also grease them unloaded as in I lift the car with the wheels hanging.

just a idea..

interesting... who sells the zerks? and which size did you use? i'd much rather use my own (higher grade) grease than what came with them.. especially if they're real cheap.

[zukgod1]

Any auto parts store will have them and there is a special tool for tapping.
It looks like a X and has the tap on one end and a wrench I think on the other end.

I rarely used the tap just grab a drill bit, drill the hole then screw in the Zerk, self tapping in most cases.

[Dakotakid]

Hey, Zuk, I have often done the drill/zerk thing on farm equipment and did think about it on tie rod ends. But, I never thought the metal would be thick enough to hold the zerk.

Do you just apply enough grease to "swell" the boot or are you able to run the old grease out through the boot which surrounds the shaft???