Hi guys,

I was installing a new driver side ball joint on my '86 IROC, I had everything put back together and was greasing the new ball joint when my grease gun handle had some unusually high resistance. I decided to take the grease gun hose off of the the ball joint grease fitting to inspect. When I tried to disconnect the hose from the fitting, the fitting came out of the bottom of the ball joint and I noticed that the bottom of the ball joint had also bulged outward. When I looked at the threads on the ball joint grease fitting I also noticed that it striped the threads in the ball joint. I've attached two pictures of this bad ball joint and one of the good ball joint on the passenger side. These are ACdelco parts, #45D2026.

I have two questions.
1. Is the ball joint still good or do I need to replace it?

2. If the ball joint is still good is there a way to replace/fix the grease fitting?

Thanks,
Chris

 

is the ball joint loose? if you jack the car up and grab the top and bottom of the wheel pulling at the top and bottom is there a lot of play or does it feel like its binding when you turn the wheels left and right???it is possible the shaft was pressed down into the grease cap and could be bad. i am by no means an expert though! you should be able to easily re-tap the hole for the grease fitting and install a new fitting if the ball joint is in fact ok

 

You should be able gently tap the grease cover back flat then reinstall the zerk fitting. They are self-taping.

 

As ttop says, the zerks are self-tapping. You may even be able to just clean the threads on the zerk that came out and reinstall it in the ball joint. I'd replace the zerk, though, in case your original zerk is where your high-pressure problem is. I've found that sometimes the hole doesn't get drilled completely through the zerk, or the process where they swedge the check ball into the end of the zerk ends up sealing it shut. Get a new one and see if you can simply screw it into the end of the joint.

I find the bulging bottom plate disturbing, though. The grease should work it's way around the ball joint and into the upper section in the boot. You _should_ blow the boot out before you do something like bulge the bottom of the ball joint.

 

Hi guys,

Thanks for the tips. I talked to the parts store and they said they would warranty the ball joint and give me a new one. So I removed the damage part and replaced it with another new AC Delco unit.

When I removed the damaged part I found that no grease had pushed through to the boot. The new ball joint also would not let grease through to the boot so I called the AC Delco TechConnect line. They said that this was normal and to just grease the ball joint again at it's first service interval.

As of right now I've got the car back together but I've been to busy to actually take it for a test drive. I'll take it for drive once I get back from my holiday trip.

Chris