All bearing manufacturers put only a nominal (minimal) amount of grease in a joint to prevent corrosion. Once you've installed them, or immediately before, you should always grease the joints/bearings to make sure that they have a full load of lube.

 

Any updates fellas? I am in need of some ball joints and need some guidance.

 

Still going strong, going to order a set for my Dad's Dodge this next week.

222,135 miles now that's 7786 miles on mine so far. I have driven maybe 100 of those miles on logging trails and Nevada desert.

 

Still way over 20k on mine. I'd have to check when I installed them, but I'm guessing I'm in the 75k - 100k range.

 

I have been happy with the ones on my lifted dually that I installed a set on my excursion today. I think I bought them the tireclub.

 

UPDATE: I thought you guys would be very interested in what I am currently experiencing with both XRF and Moog. I've been in warranty mode with Moog before, but am going through it with XRF for the first time.

Brief history... Passenger side joints (Moog) installed in March of 2009. Driver side joints (XRF) installed in May of 2009. After 13 months (only 20,000 miles), the Moog upper (passenger side) had worn excessively. Moog warrantied the upper. At that time, the XRF was running great.

Today, while setting up for an alignment and two new front tires (I replaced inner and outer tie-rods on both sides last night), the tire shop now tells me that I need BOTH upper joints replaced again. At this point, I've had the Moog fail at about 20,000 miles and then again at about 50,000 miles, and the XRF has gone 70,000 miles to reach its first failure.

A quick comment about warranty. When I called XRF a few minutes ago, they are replacing BOTH the upper AND lower joints on the side where only the upper failed, and the new units are being shipped out TODAY!!

At this point, I am certainly more pleased with the XRF durability and am exceptionally pleased with their warranty service. I went ahead and am foregoing the Moog warranty for my passenger side and am putting XRF joints back in BOTH sides! This approach is getting me a completely new set of ball joints all the way around, and at only the cost of a single pair because of XRF's great warranty philosophy.

To boot, XRF is not even requiring me to send in the failed upper joint!!

 

F250: Many of our trucks are 4x4 and, thus, are exposed to water submersion. So what lube do you recommend?

P.S. Thank you for your XRF testing. My front axle is for a 2007 F250/F350 and I plan to change out my ball joints early next Spring and will go with XRF. If you know, is there a particular type or model number XRF you like or is there only one XRF model for each F250 model year?

 

Well, being a factory rep for Schaeffer Manufacturing, I only use one of their waterproof No.2 moly grease products that is formulated with an aluminum complex thickener and has additional tackifiers to help it stick in place (either product number 221 or 274). I would strongly suggest staying away from lithium based grease products because the lithium thickeners can be fairly easily washed out with water. If you can find a marine-grade moly grease, that would be your best bet.

The only thing to watch out for is the fact that all greases do not mix and can cause grease/thickener separation which will lead to early bearing failure. For example, some of the marine grade grease products are made with calcium-based thickeners which are not always compatible with lithium- or aluminum complex- based greases. Bentone greases are also not compatible with much of anything except for other bentone greases. You can make the switch from one type of grease to one that is not compatible with it, but you have to go through a thorough purging cleanout process to make sure that the old grease is completely removed before injecting the new grease.

I don't mean to be vague, but I also can't be brand-specific either because of the hundreds of products which are out there, and I don;t know which you may or may not have access to. The bottom line is that you should compare the grease manufacturer's compatibility charts to be sure that you're not going to complicate your life with incompatible products that could lead to premature bearing/joint failure. Once you find a product you want to consider, you can send me a PM and I'll be glad to help you do a comparison of compatibilities.

 

Dude!!! I will look online for the Schaeffer's product numbers you listed. My guess is that I will only use one or two tubes in my lifetime for all my vehicles.

 

Pete, it doesn't get any better than that! Thanks for the report! Tim, I bet if you sent F250 a pm, he might be able to help you out.

 

It would surprise you how much grease gets consumed if done regularly. But then again, with a high quality EP grease, "regularly" can be rather infrequent.

When I did all my new tie-rods last night, each one took at least 6-8 pumps to start expanding the boots. Having done both my front wheel bearings and the tie-rods in the past 6 months, I've probably used 75% of a tube just on my F250. Admittedly, though, I won't have to shoot them again for a while, but I do need to revisit my u-joints again.

 

I got about 100k out of the MOOG BJ's on my dually and swapped them out at O'Riellys - where they were purchased - no questions asked. The 2nd set now have about 80k miles on them. This truck averages at least 10k lbs and rolls on 33" tall tires.

The MOOG BJ's on my X have about 70k miles on them now and no slop yet. 40k miles with HUGE 325/60/18 tires and 10" wide wheels...

If I had any less service life from them, I might switch - but at this rate I'll just let MOOG/O'Riellys gimme another set every 100k or so. I realize not everyone has the same 'luck' as I've had - even my tire store says they have changed a few (on PSD's) at ~30k miles before...

 

Well I am now sold on the XRF and as I look around they seem to cost a little less than the moog and at worse they are the same price as Moog.

So where are you guys buying your XRF parts ??? I would think it best to buy from XRF for the sake of the warranty. Because to me making good on the warrany without it being a hassle is worth every penny paid.

 

Hey Ed, I think their buying them from here
The Tire Club

 

I've always purchased straight from XRF myself, but when my son called about BJ's and dual adjustable caster/camber bushings, they sent him to one of their resellers for the bushings because they did not have them in stock at their warehouse (I think it was autopartswarehouse.com).