greasing the ball joints

[davemaxx]

i greased the upper ball joints with the grease gun and pumped a fair bit in as far as i know because i held the gun nosel onto the nipple quite firmly and eventually the grease was oozing out of joints of the grease gun because of the pressure exerted, but no grease has come out of the lower bleed hole on the ball joint boot, do you have to jack the veichle up in a special way so that the veichle weight is off the joint and the grease can flow over the joint surfaces and then out through the bottom?

[coolsv650]

i greased the upper ball joints with the grease gun and pumped a fair bit in as far as i know because i held the gun nosel onto the nipple quite firmly and eventually the grease was oozing out of joints of the grease gun because of the pressure exerted, but no grease has come out of the lower bleed hole on the ball joint boot, do you have to jack the veichle up in a special way so that the veichle weight is off the joint and the grease can flow over the joint surfaces and then out through the bottom?

Sounds like your nipple could be blocked (ooh err missus) normally it's quite easy to pump the grease in.

Grease nipples are metric thread (5mm I think) angled ones make it quite easy to grease

[davemaxx]

grease nipple

6mm, no its clear, i'v just been up the shed and checked it, the grease flows through it just fine, it's brand new 50p from the corner shop, it's the second one i've bought today actually because i lost the first one on the way home.

[davemaxx]

grease

don't get me wrong, i've definatly pumped some grease into them, probably a quantity the size blob of a golf or ping pong ball each side, it's just that nothing seems to come out the bleed hole and i can't get any moor in and i can't understand how its suposed to come out the underside of the joint when there are the two surfaces of the joint touching together, if you take a look at one you'l see what i mean.

[NiftyNev]

I'd say you have enough grease in them and it's possible that it went in easy then the grease gun may have poor pressure which is lower than the pressure required to force the grease out the ball joint rubber. Do the rubbers look inflated? Maybe the bleed hole is not open. The ones on mine aren't. There is a small piece of protruding rubber but no hole as you describe.

Nev

[davemaxx]

grease

i agree, i'm quite confident theyv'e had a good greasing, the boots arn't bulging with grease, the bleed outlets as you describe have a slit in them, if you squeez one it will open ( you need a torch). i will leave them alone now for a week or so and see whats-what after some milage,

insidently though the general deminor of the front end seems to be a lot more solid and vibration free and the stearing itself seems to be more responsive, i presume this indicates wear to the joints and the grease has packed them for a while.

[davemaxx]

would you beleve it

i took a second look at thoes ball joints and tried the grease gun on them again only to find that the gun would not pump. To cut a long story short the grease gun was bust, (even though it was new) i replaced it this-afternoon and then had no problems at all.