Oh ok. Its a Ford thing not an aftermarket mod?

There are aftermarket ones available for the 7.3 (I assume 6.0 also..) which is why it peaked my interest. Wondering what you guys had in store.

 

I did it for injector longevity. I think they sound a little better when in high idle mode of 1200. Plus, I wanted a fuel pressure gauge so that I could monitor the safe pressure minimum, and you have to open the regulator cap to install that. I'm not looking for improved performance, but it made sense to do it all at one time.

 

Makin' ball joints last a little longer.

 

Zerks are good...how much trouble was it to get at the top joint?

 

The top ones already had the zerks Steve, I just changed 'em to a 90 degree zerk so I could grease without the special gun end attachment.

 

Sean,

Looks like a great idea.

Are you concerned at all about small metal chips from the drill and tap?

Pop

 

Yes, I tried to catch em with grease on the drill bit but forgot about the tap.

 

As long as you backed off to break the chips fairly often you shouldn't have gotten much in there, if any.

 

Cleaning out the bed of my truck. The trees on my street suck. That and I had left some oil in the bed too. Just spilled oil from old jobs. At least it won't rust but it makes a mess. I cleaned out, swept, rinsed, reswept and rerinsed with soap and water a bunch of times. Glad they had dish soap at the 99 cent store.

 

Uh, yeah... I was doing the other side today - drilling and tapping the lower ball joint and got a little agressive with the tap - like Steve said, back it off to let the chips out - and broke the tap in the hole...

Didn't leave anything to get ahold of. How the heck do I get that out of there?

 

Uh oh.

There are tap extracting tools, but I've never had much luck with one. If you can get one it's worth a try. Short of that or an EDM, the only thing I know to do is to shatter the broken piece with a chisel or punch...which in this case would almost certainly drive the broken off pieces right where you don't want them to go.

 

Cry a little then replace it.

 

WaaaaWaaaa. Ok, I'm better now, that was great advice!

I used my infinite wisdom (don't tell my wife I have infinite wisdom; you'll make her laugh) and drilled yet another hole and tapped gently. Forced grease in the 2nd zerk'd hole and held a rag over the broken tap until grease came out the seams of the ball joint. Cleaned and covered the formerly oozing grease from the broken tap, covered in a small hill of silicon (upside down hill that is). Guess i best order a lower ball joint now...

 

I'd do the upper also Sean...not much more work when you're already to that point.

 

I believe it's a very-good fix, and I wouldn't do much more to it.

I would have replaced the silicone with JB-Weld, but the silicone will do just fine if it was applied to a spotlessly-clean surface.

Call it "good", and be done with it.

Pop