spuds

Im reading these posts and complaints of not being able to grease LBJ's. My Dad,when sealed bearings first came out,drilled a hole in the back and added a zerk fitting.Then when he did chassis lube he would carefully lube thru the zerk being careful to not expand the boot,and smooshed out the old grease from around the boot.

Couldnt that be done on the Lexus? Any thoughts or am I all wet on this idea?

Losiracer2

My original Lexus LBJs were still greased when I replaced them due to wear back in 2015 on my 97.

I replaced them due to slop, not due to lack of lubrication. Even the rubber boots were still intact.

If you add a greaseable fitting, there is a tendency to overgrease them and blow out the boot and cause a failure

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

This is exactly it. The lower balljoints usually wear out, even with lubrication they won't last forever and the grease does break down with time.

The biggest issue with adding zerk fittings to a ball joint that wasn't designed for it is that you'll blow the seals on the boots when you go to grease it as unlike a greasable boot it's usually a total seal in "permanent" applications.

spuds

So the top of the boot,on the shaft,is sealed and cant allow any grease to be pressed out between rubber and shaft?

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

Yes it's a tight fit as far as i've seen. No typical gap like you see in a greasable ball joint.

spuds

Yes,we would push it out like milking a cow.If Lexus cant do that,so much for this idea.Thanks.

dicer

And using the right grease should make them last a lot longer than they do. And spuds is correct, just pry down a bit on the boot and it should relieve the grease pressure.

Amskeptic

I have installed zerk fittings on innumerable "lifetime lubrication" ball joints. You can "bleed" excess grease out between the boot and the stud, but you need to have the stud out of the knuckle to articulate the stud and slip a small flat-bladed screwdriver between the two to help rinse out the excess.

Lexus cars, however, seem a lot easier to replace than the ones I try to make last forever on air-cooled Volkswagens, and I would replace and zerk the new one considering that there have been too many recalls on Toyota/Lexus lower ball joints:

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news...ll_joints.html

www.arfc.org/autos/lexus/gs300/recalls.aspx

https://repairpal.com/toyota-recall-...oint-issue-677