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Lubricating BallJoints, UJoints and Bearings

myersedmyersed Member Posts: 102
in General
Well, my new 2000 Dakota has no zerk fittings.
How do you replenish and purge old grease?

Is there a way to tap in a zerk fitting into the
upper and lower fittings and the steering knuckles?
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Comments

  • butch11butch11 Member Posts: 153
    No being a smart [non-permissible content removed] but the way you grease them is to wait till they wear out and when you replace them, get joints with zerks. On some of these things you can pull off the rubber cover and kind of push in some grease. They have a spring clip holding down the rubber cover. It is a disposable society we live in-yeah I prefer zerks and also prefer chokes-too many people did not perform manintenance and away went the zerks.
  • mazda323mazda323 Member Posts: 66
    Ball-joints and tie-rods don't require grease if they don't have grease nipples. They use low-friction materials and are sealed so no water or dirt can get in. Then only maintenance is to replace them when they go. From what i've heard, they seem to last longer then the ones that need to be greased. Don't pull the rubber cover off to grease! That's probably the worst thing you could do.
  • blacktoothblacktooth Member Posts: 4
    So how much is enough grease to put into a ball joint? Should it overflow the boot? I have a blazer with zerks all over the place.
  • mazda323mazda323 Member Posts: 66
    When you grease a ball joint or tie rod, pay close attention to the rubber boot. When filling, the boot will begin to swell (unless it is torn). You should stop pumping grease before grease starts spewing out. If you pump too much grease on a ball joint, the grease will spew out and collect on the inside of the rim, attracting dirt. You will end up with a chunk of crud on the rim and this could cause a wheel vibration.
    For a nipple on a drive shaft u-joint, pump grease until you can see it coming out around the u-joint. If your blazer is the small one (like an S-10)with 4x4 and a skid plate under the front end, it can be extremely hard to grease. The skid plate makes it almost impossible to get to some grease fittings. If I remember correctly, there should be a total of 11 fittings for the front end, plus possibly more for the drive shafts.
  • redsilveradoredsilverado Member Posts: 1,000
    am greasing 2000 1500 ls silverado for first time
    and would like to know if there are more than 6
    fittings on front end. truck has rack and pin.
    any answers would be appreciated.

    red
  • bigjim6bigjim6 Member Posts: 1
    I'm positive my car is not getting lubricated properly, where can I obtain a lubrication chart, showing the number and placement of grease fittings?
  • mazda323mazda323 Member Posts: 66
    What make and model is it? Someone here probably knows where and how many grease nipples are on your vehicle.
  • werkingwerking Member Posts: 431
    red...
    in the event you missed this discussion over on the silverado page...there are 11 zerks on the front end of a '00 1500 LS Z71

    to see 10 of them, go to:
    http://www.PictureTrail.com/kwerking/95343

    # 11 is on the passenger side, and is really hard to locate unless you remove the plastic brush guard (5 15 mm bolts). i'll have pics of all 11 posted on that trail before too long...gotta get the truck up in the air first.
    #5 passenger side i had to replace with a right angle zerk in order to get to it. again...easier to do if you remove the plastic brush guard.

    kyle
  • chevyrog1chevyrog1 Member Posts: 20
    Wondering if I am getting all the fittings on my wrangler. Anyone know exactly how many there are?
  • nognil5nognil5 Member Posts: 3
    I have a 2000 GMC Sierra 2 wd 1500 SLE Model pickup. I only found 6 zerks on the front end, and 1 on the drive shaft. Hope this is correct. Maybe somelse can confirm this on those 2 wd chev and gmc pickups. Thx Blue SLE
  • rbhinsonrbhinson Member Posts: 1
    I'm taking Mazda's advice in post#8. I need to know the number and location of the lube fittings on my Ford 2001 SD,CC, V-10. I do my own oil filter changes- use Mobile 1 Tri-syn. and would also like to lube it as well. Thanks for any help. Semper Fi, and keep trucking!
  • poisondartfrogpoisondartfrog Member Posts: 102
    I have a '97 Olds Bravada AWD. The dealership informed me yesterday that the upper and lower ball joints, and the idler arm, need to be replaced. The truck has 46,000 miles. The front end has been religiously lubed every 6K miles. Living in the Northeast, the roads are rough, but I do my best to avoid potholes...

    Is this common on the S-series trucks? Why? I've never had such short a lifespan of front end components on my previously-owned vehicles. Is it a design problem?
  • ro22tolro22tol Member Posts: 24
    I would have another shop look at them. They should be good for 100K. If you are getting alot of front end drift, and find it hard to keep it in a straight line after hitting a pot hole, you may need to replace them. Everytime I have my trucks wheels balanced, the tire shop tells me the ball joints need replacing. I have had two trusted mechanics look at them and tell me they are fine.

    GET A SECOND SHOP TO LOOK AT THEM!!
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Ball joints have a TOLERANCE for looseness...that is, there is a small allowance of looseness that is acceptable....often, unsuspecting consumers are sold items because they don't know that a certain degree of wear is acceptable.

    I knew of one shop that sold LOTS of U-Joints simply by grabbing the driveshaft and wiggling it. Of course, there is slack in most drivelines, so the car owner would see and hear a little movement. Bingo,,,,2-3 new u-joints that were never needed. (The shop was fined for this eventually).
This discussion has been closed.

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