I bought the mevotech front end kit. Neither upper nor lower ball joints came with grease fittings. Only a little brass screw/plug in each package. Yes, Im sure. I looked in all the packages.

The manufacturer website says they come factory greased but they recommend 2 pumps of grease before install and routine greasing with oil changes. But how would you do this with no grease fittings? Regardless, I installed them with just the little brass plug they came with threaded into the hole in the ball joint. I got everything assembled and when I was torquing the lower castle nut I started to get really uneasy about the no grease fitting situation.

The rubber ball felt bone dry and when I squeezed it there was no squishiness or slow bounce back like how it feels when the ball is full of grease. It just collapsed and I could hear air whooshing out. So I took out the brass plug and put in a grease fitting.

I TRIED to pump grease into and it all just spilled out. I tried multiple grease fittings and a different brand new gun. I cannot get a drop of grease through the fitting. Side note: I can get grease through the fittings themselves when they are not attached to the ball joint.

So now I am basically faced with disassembling all my work I already did (take apart sway bar link, detach shock and untorque the already semi-aligned cam bolts on the new lower control arm to drop it down) so I can seperate the knuckle from the control arm and properly access the ball joint and figure out how to try to get some grease in it.

What should I do? Leave it with no grease and no fitting? Or take it all apart and try to get grease in it?

 

Perhaps the zerks have such long threads that their inner ends are seating on something inside the joint when they are turned down tight.
Try filing or Dremeling a notch in the zerks threaded bottom so that grease might pass even if the zerk is bottomed out in the joint.
Try pumping in some grease with the zerks only threaded part way in and see if grease will enter the joint...
Just spitballin here....

 

That's a really good idea and worth a shot. I'll try tomorrow. Thank you.

 

You can get zerk fittings at your local parts store that you should be able to thread into the ball joints. Then you will be able to fill them up with grease.

 

I took the other lower ball joint that came in the kit that I hadn't installed yet to carquest and bought some fittings and checked to make sure they fit. I can squeeze grease through them when they are not installed on the ball joint but when I put them on the ball joint the grease just spills out around the fitting and none goes in.

Idk if you're really just not supposed to put grease in these ball joints? Why wouldn't they have come with fittings? What are the brass plugs supposed to be for? I dont get it.

 

It’s not uncommon for joints to come with plugs, then removed and replaced with grease fittings. I never used a mevotech item, but I’ve read about varying degrees of quality. Replacing ball joints is just too much work for me to do more than once, which is why I always pony up for oem.

 

Second that. I did not have to replace my upper BJ's until my truck was around 34 YO. The cost of OEM bought and done only once every 34 years is not much.

 

I'd try removing the plug bolt and using one of these kind of grease gun tips and see if you can force grease in that way and then put the bolt back in to seal it up.
LUMAX LX-1415 Silver 3-5/8" Needle-Type Adapter Needle-Type Adapter, 5" (127 mm). Needle-Type Adapter for Flush or Hard-to-Reach Grease Fittings. https://a.co/d/hT0ZYau

 

Any resolution of this issue??

 

I agree with the OEM route. My 87 runner still has the original upper and lower. Still drives great, and tires don't show uneven wear, so I've never changed them in the 20 years I've been driving it. Some of the Rockauto and other discount stuff are lucky to go 30k miles. If not OEM, I'd go upper grade Moog.

 

I only replaced the upper ball-joints because they had play, AND they are the ones that carry the weight of the truck, while the lower BJ's are merely to keep the hub in position and follows the UBJ's. Unlike on the 3rd gens where the LBJ's support vehicle weight.

 

Whatever ball joint the torsion bar passes through is typically the one under the most stress.
I don't think Moog ball joints have been meeting expectations, either, judging by the various forums I read. When I did my research the only brand other than oem that seemed to deliver was Senkei.

 

Thanks, this is good to know for future reference. Your comment got me to research more and I found that the Moog economy stuff is junk, and quality for imports is hit or miss even with the higher grade. I believe it was the Mavotech with pretty blue boots that I only got 30k out of on my 91 4runner.

 

Didn't use Moog ball joints on my FE rebuild, but did use them for the upper control arm bushings. Started cracking after 3 years. I believe it when they say the quality has gone down hill. Never using them again for anything. On a 2WD truck the ball joints are a simple easy replacement. Just three bolts not pressed in type.