Quick Zerk question

I'm looking for the location of the grease fitting for the lower ball joints on the steering knuckles on the D30. I've been lazy in the past and just let the shop do it, but now that I have some space to work, I've been going through all of the routine stuff on my own. My FSM is no help, it just says to grease to ball joints. I've got the rest of the fittings located, I just can't find these last two. Thanks for any help.

next time u get under your XJ, bring a few rgs withyou and wipe down all of the nasty old grease thats spewed out all over on certain areas.

clean everything really well, and hopefully you'll have better luck locating everything

good luck :wave1:

I cleaned everything as well as I could. I felt all around the fitting. I couldn't fing a zerk anywhere. Your right though, some of the steering zerks were completely buried in grease and dirt.

My original upper and lower ball joints didn't have zerk fittings. The ones I replaced them with did. Wierd.

What I can tell my 88 XJ still has the factory ball joints. The uppers have a grease fitting but the lowers are sealed. If you notice the u-joints for the axle shafts are also sealed. The front and rear drive shaft have grease fittings also.

I am lucky to live in a town big enough to have a "driveshaft" shop. I was in there picking up u-joints for my front axle shaft and asked about greaseable ones. The owner told me you want sealed u-joints for that application because if you can put grease in then the water and dirt can also get in.

After that I figured the same reasoning for having sealed lower ball joints. With fording creeks and the like the lower balls joint gets wet alot.

Sounds like you are the road to good maintenance. I am not sure what grease you use but I use to use mobil 1 till the store was out when I needed another tube. I did research and discovered the Valvoline full synthetic has a wider temperature range. I figure i can spend $4.50 a tube instead of $2 a tube for normal grease. It not much more money for peace of mind. Just thought I'd throw that in.

I am sure you know to wipe off the grease fitting before you hook up the grease gun and then to leave the grease blob on the fitting to prevent rust. Also if possible have the weight off the suspension when you lube it. This allows new lube to get into the area normally making contact on the ball joint. I am lucky I use a garage with a lift to change oil, I have weight off the suspension when I do a lube job. It well worth the $4/hour i pay!

The lower ball joints mount from the top down, with the knuckle fitting up from beneath. There isn't enough clearance for the axle shaft u-joint to rotate without snapping off a Zerk fitting. If you feel around the knuckle directly above the centerline of the ball joint, you should feel a plug.

Replacement ball joints come with a plug. You install the ball joint, insert a Zerk and grease the ball joint, then remove the Zerk and install the plug. You don't have the remove the Zerk, or course -- by design it is self-removing as soon as you drive the vehicle, but it's hard to get the plug in after the u-joint has ripped out the Zerk and messed up the threads.

Only way to do it is to dissasemble and pull the axles I think, it may be possible to get the plug out and put a 90* zerk in if you position everything just right.... never tried it though, I just did e'm by pulling it all apart when I did the brakes.
Mike B.