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Gentlemen,

I have installed extended zerk fittings to the top of my sealed upper rear ball joints and cannot get any grease through the bottom side of the ball joint. I have removed the zerks and I am getting grease all the way through the extension and into the top of the joints, but there is no grease coming through the bottom side of joint. The zerk fittings only penetrate the thin top cover of the ball joint. I do not have the rubber boots installed yet. The ball joint is not mounted in the car as I am modifying it on the bench. The grease that I am using is Lucas Red-N-Tacky grease.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

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@gvillebill posted:

Come on guys and gals. Any thoughts! This is the second ball joint I have tried to modify and I still cannot get grease through this joint. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

grease time by time is not needed .

Replace the ball joint , the grease is not the problem , the quality from the ball joint is the problem , after 50 years they are wearing out.

I know into the USA the technical inspection level is not high , in Europe I have replace the ball joints  from all the imported Pantera's

Thanks everyone. I finally got grease through the ball joint. I had not drilled through far enough to go through the inner shield. Once I did this, I had plenty of grease at the bottom of joint. I was trying hard not to go too deep with the drilling and possibly damaging the ball joint, but just a little bit deeper solved the problem. I also used new ball joints rather than the old original ball joints that I was using to experiment with.

The current replacement ball joints are affordable, but back when they were $50 each and still needed grease fittings, I modified some Chrysler-type (NOT made by Chrysler) upper front ball joints to fit our Pantera. These are fine-threaded,  designed to screw into an a-arm socket although I didn't adapt them that way. They came with boots and zerks.

This part is quite popular with kit-car builders for big-block Cobras, kit-GT-40s and dirt track race cars. Some have replaceable tapered studs of different lengths for changing the geometry of the suspension.  I used only upper fronts for all 6 ball joints in the car. They work fine and I managed to lose some unsprung weight in the process. Illustrated article in the POCA Archives

I got a couple of PMs on how I was able to 'lose unsprung weight' with Chrysler-type racing ball joints. Screw-in ball joints use an odd half-height thread and I didn't want to cut down a 1-1/4"-SAE fine tap to reproduce that, so I chucked the new ball joints in a lathe, turned off the threads and used fabricated press-fit metal holders in front.

You could do this with a file, with care to keep the results round. You could also bore out a pair of stock worn-out cast iron ball joints and press in the Chrysler-type ball joints, for a slightly more stock look with stock weight. I tried this and it also works fine.

My more lightly loaded upper holders are 6AL-4V magnesium and the lowers are strong 7075-T-6 aluminum- both considerably lighter than stock cast iron. The position of the upper cross-bolt holes for camber adjustment break thru the holder's big hole and touch the ball joint case, which I relieved to act as positive detents to aid the press fit. I used gr-8 SAE bolts & nuts top and bottom which are slightly smaller but stronger & lighter than stock gr-5 metrics.

The same ball joints in the upper rear (without their threads) shrink-press directly into the Pantera's upper rear arms, with red Lock-tite. Being the type that needs to 'finish' a project, I added 2-1/2" OD holes, sawed in the reinforcing web of the stock upper a-arm for more lost weight. Wheel alignments work as stock and no problems so far (20 yrs & counting). And it's all reversible if you're a purist!

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