Tight ball joints would not accept grease

[wrcsixeight]

A few years back, I allowed myself to be convinced that XRF ball joints were among the best available for my application.

After install, just like the XRF website warned, the bottoms would not accept any grease until they worn in.


Well after 2 years, they would still not accept any grease(the zerks were not plugged) and I bought an extension for my grease gun with a needle and punctured the boot and nearly filled the boots with Redline CV-2. At this time, I was also able to get a very tiny amount of grease in through the zerks at this time, perhaps three very slow pumps with the gun each, using a lot of hand pressure.

This was about 2 weeks ago. At that time I noticed yet another boot on a Tie rod end had split, and yesterday I replaced it with a polyurethane, and then regreased all the Zerks again while I was under there, mostly to purge more of the old unknown grease and replace it with the Redline CV-2.

Much to my surprise, when I attached the gun to the lower BJ's, they provided no resistance to the gun, and each easy pump expanded the boot slightly until it started exiting the pinhole I punctured at the top of the boot.


It makes no sense to me why these ball joints decided to go from barely accepting any grease through the zerk, to no resistance what so ever, in 2 weeks and perhaps 35 miles of easy around town driving.

I do not see how filling the boot from the top via a needle through the boot would allow easy greasing from the zerk 2 weeks later.

Any theories?

 

[NHGUY]

Whenever I bought Taiwanese Ball joints off Ebay,I could never get grease into them.Buying Moog or Mevotech (also Taiwanese),no problem.

 

[wrcsixeight]

I wish Moog was what it once was. I had removed a Moog Problem solver Upper BJ that had seen some serious abuse, and it was still in excellent condition.

I have no faith that current Moog products are made as stout.
One can only hope that one gets the older made in USA stock.

I don't really have much faith in my Taiwanese XRF's either. They are still slopless, but have not seen any real abuse or high mileage either.

 

[Donald]

I would have never put a hole in the boot. The grease gets in to the joint via the zerk. I can assure you almost no grease gets into the joint where it needs from the boot.

 

[wrcsixeight]

I put the hole in the boot simply because it was not getting into the joint through the zerk. After 2 years, I couldn't stand the thought of a dry boot.

The needle through the boot is about 1mm in diameter.

 

[LargeCarManX2]

Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight
I put the hole in the boot simply because it was not getting into the joint through the zerk. After 2 years, I couldn't stand the thought of a dry boot.

The needle through the boot is about 1mm in diameter.



To really make this work, you need to lift the car from the frame and let the ball joints have zero pressure on them. If an air grease gun is avaliable, this works best!

 

[wrcsixeight]

I had tried getting grease into the zerks with the suspension hanging at it's limit, and with the wheels turned to the lock at either side and every point in between, and even on a downward incline so the front suspension was compressed more.

I tried it with my 250 lb friend jumping on the bumper. I've got forearms like Popeye and a powerbuilt GG.

The ball joints resisted all efforts at accepting grease.

I did not want to puncture the boot, but after 2 years I wanted grease in there, and now after puncturing the boots with a grease needle, they accept grease through the zerk as easy as any other zerk on my vehicle.

Any theories on why adding grease directly into the boot via a needle allowed the BJ's to accept grease through the zerks?

 

[LargeCarManX2]

Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight
Any theories on why adding grease directly into the boot via a needle allowed the BJ's to accept grease through the zerks?


The boots were sealed so well they would not let air or grease out? The machined groove from the zerk to the ball-joint had a burr that would not move until grease from the opposite side lubed it. It might just be a question you will never know!

 

[wrcsixeight]

Originally Posted By: LargeCarManX2
It might just be a question you will never know!


Yeah, you are probably right.

I'm going to allow myself to think that the Redline CV-2 grease is simply the best grease ever, getting to areas no standard grease was able to reach before.......... plating mating surfaces with ultra slippery moly, purging lesser quality greases in a single bound.....

Thus justifying my purchase of an expensive grease.

Now I'm all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

[SOHCman]

Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight
Originally Posted By: LargeCarManX2
It might just be a question you will never know!


Yeah, you are probably right.

I'm going to allow myself to think that the Redline CV-2 grease is simply the best grease ever, getting to areas no standard grease was able to reach before.......... plating mating surfaces with ultra slippery moly, purging lesser quality greases in a single bound.....

Thus justifying my purchase of an expensive grease.

Now I'm all warm and fuzzy inside.


"And on the 7th day, the ball joints would accept Redline grease, and the Lord saw that it was good."

 

[SOHCman]

Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight
I wish Moog was what it once was. I had removed a Moog Problem solver Upper BJ that had seen some serious abuse, and it was still in excellent condition.

I have no faith that current Moog products are made as stout.
One can only hope that one gets the older made in USA stock.

I don't really have much faith in my Taiwanese XRF's either. They are still slopless, but have not seen any real abuse or high mileage either.


I just bought 4 new mood ball joints for my 250, they all say made in the USA on the bottom in a circle around the zerc fitting. The offshore moogs actually SAY they are made elsewhere right? One thing I noted was they didn't have a gold coating to them but instead were dark, the box showed a gold(zinc?) coating. Are these ok to use?

 

[wrcsixeight]

Sohcman, I have no idea.

Yesterday I noticed wet spots under my ball joints and TRE's.

I looked underneath and each zerk had a drip of red oil hanging from it. (CV-2 is red)

Looks like I got a grease incompatibility issue.

Whohoo! Another mosquito buzzing around the back of my head.

 

[SOHCman]

What base is redline? Lithium? Most grease it seems have some extent of oil separation from the thickener especially when subject to pressure in a grease gun. Even if you do have an incompatibility, with the frequency you are adding grease it shouldn't matter, and it's flushing out all the old grease that may be incompatible at the same time.

 

[wrcsixeight]

I never found out what Redline's base is, nor the grease that I used before, nor what they came with.

Looks like I will be frequently greasing the zerks from here on out, or at least until I do not notice any more red drips hanging on the vertical zerks

 

[SwampSurvivor]

If you inject grease into a greaseable balljoint through the boot, it won't actually lubricate anywhere near as well as it will if you do through the zerk (which was plugged at the time ...).

The zerk lubes it internally.

 

[Tempest]

I believe the Redline grease uses a clay based thickener.