Over Greased My Joints And Such?

04silverado1500 · August 17, 2007

im not sure if i did but i think i might have over greased the ball joints and such underneath my truck is this possible? i think i shot 4-5 shots in them maybe even 6 but i couldnt tell if they got grease the first few times because i had just put a new tube on the gun and i was not sure if it was coming out. also i wanted to get them good cuz i hadent done them since atleast 45k and i had 56k on the truck at that point so i dont know that there was that much grease in them already plus i thought the extra would just come out unlike other people told me i could pop a seal HELP!

asilverblazer · August 17, 2007

Pump them until firm, if you put too much in they can burst, no burst then its not too much.

04silverado1500 · August 17, 2007

and i would be retarded if i didnt know that they burst right!?!?!?!?!

asilverblazer · August 17, 2007

Gease would be coming uot if it burst. Some of the joints can leak out, some can not. If it did burst there would likely be a split in the rubber with grease coming out it. If grease is coming out at the seams it is likely OK. By seams I mean where the rubber part starts. They usually don't take a lot. But it probably took several pumps to get any grease out of the gun. I usually pump until I see grease come out of the gun then pump it on the zerk. That way I know I'm not shooting blanks.

04silverado1500 · August 18, 2007

yea i should have done that alot had already come out of the side before i got under there it was old though and i pumped some in and didnt see any i think on side had some come out of the side ill have to double check though

tjg79 · August 21, 2007

I usually just pump the grease until I see it bleed out of the rubber boot joints.

However, this last time I serviced my ball joints, only the upper ball joint on the right side did not bleed any grease, so I kept pumping thinking that the grease gun was not putting out. To my surprise, I split open the ball joint boot.

GM does not sell just the upper ball joint for a 2500HD. The want to sell the upper control arm with the ball joint attached. My local stealer originally quoted $250 for this part. After my reaction, he dropped down to $160. Apparently, this local stealer likes to mark up above GM MSRP for parts.

GM Parts Direct wants about $98 plus shipping. My local Advanced Auto Parts wants about $35 for a TRW ball joint with a life time warranty.

So, be careful or you will be in for a ball joint replacement task at a minimum cost of about $36 plus a couple hours of hassel if you do it yourself.

I ordered the TRW ball joint to fix my mistake.