I had to have all the ball joints and the rear u-joint replaced on my truck (89 sr5 4x4, 318k miles) about a week ago. I changed the oil yesterday and got the grease gun out to hit the zerks too. My concern is that the new fittings have absolutely no sign they were ever greased. There is no sign of grease on the zerks (they're still cleaner than my silverware), there's no grease coming out of the joints on the uj, and the feel and look of the seals on the ball joints leads me to believe there's no grease there either.

My question is: Do these parts come from the factory pre-greased? I thought they might have a little machine oil on them to prevent rust in storage, but that's all I'd expect.

If they did in fact get installed without being greased, how much damage have I done by running them dry for 1000 miles?

Thanks,
lunchbeast

 

Depends on the brand. I bought a ball joint at AutoZone the other week (forget the name brand) and while it had a zerk, it was packed full of grease. It didn't fit properly (unrelated), so I ended up taking it back & went to Advanced Auto Parts only to find that they stocked Moog which I was pretty happy about. The Moog's came disassembled (boot off & zerk not installed). I greased them after installation.

 

I just used the NAPA brand U-joints and they had some greese in them but I still added a little more.
Kevin

 

Thanks guys. Any comments on how much damage a thousand miles of normal street driving would have done to these components without grease?