greaser fitting in ball joint

[james accordino]

--- Konstantin Bogach <kbogach at home.com> wrote:
> Hi lister.
> 
> I removed fron control arms and I see that ball
> joints need be serviced.
> Protective boots were ripped and dirt needs to be
> cleaned from inside.
> Back in Russia I used to fit greasers into bottom of
> all ball joints I
> had in my car. It helped me to use them 3 year and
> more. Without it they
> goes south in 1 year at most. Yes,  it sounds funny,
> ... here.  Did
> anybody use this method?  Any thoughts why I should
> not do that? It
> would help me to push all dirt out from joint and
> later I could add
> fresh grease time to time.
> 
> I thought to drill a hole, accurately, and screw a
> greaser fitting in.
> I don't know  what is inside of these ball joints(in
> front control arms)
> and I don't remember what was in russian ones. But I
> remember that I
> opened used joint to make sure that I don't mess up
> anything inside
> (like plastic inserts) and found that I could do
> that.
> 
> I will appreciate you input.
> 
I did this to mine a few years ago.  I also found the
boots torn and the grease watery and dirty.  Mechanics
often cut them inadvertantly with the pickle fork type
ball joint removal tool.  After I removed the old boot
and cleaned them I found the plastic insert and the
ball were very tight with almost no wear.  I put on
boots I had salvaged and regreased them.  Only problem
I had was that the sheet metal on the bottom cover was
too thin to hold the zerk fitting well, so I used a
little 2-part epoxy to hold them in place.  

HTH
Jim Accordino