Sealed Ball Joint Greasing?

Found this video while searching for different types of grease gun tip fittings. Also found the fitting on Amazon. I have searched these forums and didn't find anything specific to my question so gonna ask afresh.

1. Will puncturing the OE boot on 2nd Gen sealed Ball Joint's cause any issues, other than the obvious it might tear?
2. Has anyone done this?
3. Maybe can get into the void of the boot by slipping the needle under the boot rather than through it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEFWPKiDx0I

Stainless Steel Grease Injector Needle
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081KRXSY...colid=LJVDKIWW68UP&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

Youd want to go under. Also those needles hardly flow. Youll be pumping hardly anything in there anyway. Ive tried this. Ended up just replacing them.

 

Replacing them currently isn't an option for me. Just had my front end completely taken apart to replace various parts of my suspension and needle bearing. In doing this, I was going to go ahead and swap out my Ball Joints even though they were not showing signs of needing replacement (preventative maintenance). Much to my dismay, the OE Ball Joint's must be permanently pressed in as I was unable to remove them using the correct special tools and loudly cussing. To replace them, I would have to replace the entire control arm assembly. I put everything back together but since I am greasing everything now and I found this option, I was thinking I might be able to get even more miles out of those upper and lower Ball Joint's if I grease them. I might get this and go under the boot as you mentioned even though I might be pumping for a while.

 

New grease cant hurt, it just is not really worth it to puncture the boot. That will most certainly lessen its life. Typically these OE joints will go like 150K miles+ never being touched.

 

I am at 125k right now and really haven't touched anything till this year (due to my son having the truck the last 5 years). I want to make it last 250k if possible so looking at replacing lubes, greasing and anything else I can do to give it longer life chances.

 

Get something like this and fill with grease.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Curved-Tip...rigation-Dental-Syringe-Bag-of-4/142998984518

the hard plastic tip can be fanagled under the lip of the boots pretty easily. No holes, no puncturing, known amount of grease being put into the boot of the ball joint.

 

228 k miles and orig LBJs
my uppers failed on me like 4k miles ago

 

Replacing LCAs isn’t bad. You can just jack the truck up, remove bolts from bottom of spindle and pull off alignment cam bolts. I think I paid $120 for each LCA. Then you can use a press to remove and replace the factory bushings and ball joints on your old LCAs and you’ll have spares ready to go

 

Not sure how you got your LBJ's out but mine were unable to be removed. Maybe once I replace the LCA's I can take them to a shop and have them use a hydraulic press to get them out.

 

You have used these to do yours I take it?

 

There is a c-clip you remove and then have to press them out

 

They'll come out. Just need an impact gun powerful enough. And a torch

 

I wouldn’t puncture the boot. Not only could it tear it would also let in dirt and moisture. I’d run them till they fail then replace them with something greaseable.

 

I took the Snap Ring out thinking it would just pop out easy but no go. I did't use heat but I did use an electric impact wrench capable of 450 ft. lbs. of torque along with the BJ removal tool from AutoZone and all it did was leave indentations on the top of the BJ head. I tried banging on it with a 5 lb. hammer as well but darn thing wouldn't move. Thought maybe I was trying to remove it the wrong way but confirmed multiple times I was doing it right. I will try again next time but for now I am just gonna grease them up since the boots are still in great shape and no signs of actual defects in the BJ itself.

Gonna try one of these methods out see what happens.

 

I'm about 10k miles less than you and just about to replace uppers as preventative maintenance since I'm going to be in there replacing the shock coil assemblies (lowers were replaced last year with new frame). I'll inspect them closer when I'm in there but they still seem fine. How did yours fail and how did you notice?

At 125k I think you have a ways to go and can or probably get close to your 250k by not messing with them (myself and knotty as examples).

 

If there's nothing wrong with them, why bother? Just leave them alone and replace them when necessary. Your impact might not be strong enough to press them out btw. @EatSleepTacos helped me do one side using his Dewalt high torque and we had to hold the trigger on that bitch and let her eat for awhile before it started to go. When I did the other side I borrowed the same model Dewalt from a friend and she kept ugga dugga-ing for awhile and didn't go, no matter how much heat we applied. I gave in and bought a new Milwaukee high torque and it broke loose in like 10 seconds.

 

I am still gonna try to squeeze some grease in there but will wait to replace till they actually go bad. Hopefully I can find someone with a High Torque Impact Wrench at that point.

 

my drivers upper was loose and failed inspection, ordered the whole UCA on ebay 100 for the pair.
Clean off the rust on UCA long bolt threads with wire brush and put some PBlaster on it the night before to make it come off easy

 

Good to know! Gave mine a quick look the other night and didn't notice any play in mine, but like I mentioned earlier I'll inspect them closer when I have the tire/wheel off replacing my shock coil assemblies. Either way though I'm replacing them with new UCA assemblies like you did, plus they're pretty rusty and probably really should've been part of the frame replacement program. I just went ahead and ordered new UCA bolts & nuts, but will reuse the washers as those things are stupid expensive!

Oh, and one more thing, so which method did you use to remove your UCA bolts? Did you cut their heads off and slide them out the rear or did you bend the sheet metal fender well and pull them out the front? And what direction did you put the bolt back in when you reinstalled it?

P.S. Nice old school Ford!

 

I'd try a breaker bar instead of the impact. You may need a cheater on it as well.