Uniball caked in CV axle grease

Due to some previous issues, I went out to go look at my truck to see how my Cv boots are holding up and of course as Newton's law would have it the drivers side gave out yet again. I'm so sick of this. My drivers side lower uniball on my LCA is caked in grease. I have not been offroading nor am planning to until I can fix my CV boots and rebuild one of my shocks. My big question is, how long could I actually street drive with the uniball caked in the grease for? I know they really are not fond of grease, and will fail sooner if are greased vs. just lubed. The LCA's are new, as are the balls needless to say. Will I be ok until I receive my new set of boots later this week? I won't be able to redo the CV's until early next week if I don't receive the boots by Tuesday night.

 

I'm not sure what you are saying. Is the grease from the CV joint caking up on the lower ball joint?

Are you asking how long the CV joint will last being torn, or are you asking if the grease from the CV joint will cause the lower ball joint to fail prematurely?

I do know for a fact that CV joint will last a long time with no grease. I had a torn boot at 26,000 miles and drove the truck to 300,000 miles. It just clicked a bit more when in 4WD.

 

I'm not really worried about the CV joint itself per se. What I'm more worried about is the lower uniball which is current getting caked in CV grease. Will its overall lifespan be lowered from being covered in CV grease in which its not supposed to be?

 

That grease won't hurt a thing, just unsightly. Most likely even protect the LBJ more by keeping any water from getting in the joint.

 

No matter what I do the bands just refuse to hold on to the larger outer end of the boot.

Interesting. That's what I was thinking but the other poster is telling me that I should clean it out a and you are saying it will not harm the uniball so I'm not sure which one is true. Lol.

 

My LBJ was caked with grease for 270,000 miles. It hurts nothing.

Are you running a lift? The angle of the halfshaft/CV joint could be causing the boot to pull off. Do you have a band aroung the narrow end of the boot? It needs to be able to slide in and out as the lenth changes with turning and spring compressing.

 

They are no longer the stock ones, as they gave out shortly after the boots were replaced. I think that was contributed to banding the smaller inner portion of the outers slightly too far outward past their grooved mark on the shaft itself.

 

Are we talking about the same thing? Any dirt in the CV joint "should" be cleaned out.

Any grease that is flung onto the lower ball joint is not going to hurt anything.

 

Thats what I'm starting to think myself. I'm going to be replacing them with SDHQ 930/934 style boots shortly, but they haven't even shipped out yet and they have not sent the invoice for shipping yet like they were supposed to on Friday and Saturday.

Wont the stock outer wall out of there if I leave them free though? I am running a lift BTW.

 

Its not a ball joint I am running. Its an account exposed uniball spherical bearing at the bottom on the LCA instead of a BJ now.

 

Wont the stock outer wall out of there if I leave them free though?

I don't fallow you on this question.

 

I think I'm up to speed. You are running aftermarket lower control arms with a different joint. I have no experience with these. I don't know if it will hurt it to be coated with grease.

For what its worth, once the CV joint flings all its grease, clean it off and you won't have to do it a gain...unless the boot clamp fails again.

 

Stupid ass phone. Sorry. Won't the inner end of the stock outer boot leak grease from there if I run it without a clamp though? I can't see the boots being self sealing if left without a clamp. I know the SDHQ ones are good without a clamp on the inner part of the boot.

 

If you got the correct grease in there, there will be little to no leakage. That grease is some amazing stuff. It clings to the parts better than anything I have used. 2nd, the centrifucal force is much lower on the small diameter end of the boot.

Sorry about the spelling. Work computer and they don't like us installing extra stuff on the machines. I'm just happy they let me surf as much as I do.

 

I never thought about the centrifugal force being lower on thesmall end. Good call. Either way. It looks like I'll have to replace the boots and leave the smaller end unbranded. I'm just not looking forward to cleaning all the shit. Again.

 

Confirmed. After resecuring the large clamp on the boot and removing the small diameter clamps on the shaft side the boot is no longer flying off. Apparently the movement in my suspension is so much to the point that either the clamps give out, or the boots will tear so the weakest link will go first. Interesting.

Good thing I'll be replacing the boots here in short order. It looks like its a necessary upgrade for full effort mid travel guys.