I was just reading in Pop Mechanics about changing out ball joints, which got me thinkin, alot of this stuff on this truck is "lubricated for life" and personally, nothing is lubricated for life... so, are there aftermarket parts that I can buy, that when the time comes for replacing some of these parts, i can get parts with the grease nipples on them? or is this just a waste of money?

 

Yes there are ball joints that you can get that are greaseable.. i'd be more worried about the boots cracking first though, you can keep putting grease in it but water, sand, mud, everything is still gonna get in there and tear them up if the boot is tweaked.

 

this is something else I have been wondering, since i have front cv shafts, could i just spray some Armor-all on the boots, and stuff to prolong their life, or is this another one of those "waste of time" doohickeys?

 

I think some rubber seal conditioner would help with cracking due to drying out and such.. good idea on that one, im not sure about the armor-all though?

 

well then what should I use?

i been using a armor-all type stuff called son-of a gun, comes in a yellow gallon jug, dad got it for a buck at big lots. i use it on all rubber and plastic, except for my tires.... tho for boots on like the cv shafts, and other parts of the suspension, i think a spray applicator would work better, faster, easier quicker, tho, i dunno, you mentioned some other stuff, what is this styuff u speak of?

now, my cv shafts have 30K miles on them, and i imagine ima hafta get around to replacing them soon, cause they dont last forever, but if i could make that boot last longer, i think that would help alil on my pocket book.

 

Well, like on my door seals, I use some tire shine foam to keep them replenished and looking healthy.. so maybe that would be good to use? I sure hope that the cv shafts would last longer than 30k.. those usually fail on FWD's at around 100k+ miles.

 

well on my fwd mazda, they went at 80,000 miles, tho i dont know if mom had them replaced before then or not.... so, im not sure heh.

on door seals i use that son of a gun stuff, but what i have found is that that, trim along the bottom of the windows on the doors, its like a piece of metal coated with rubber or something, is a lil discolored, any ideas on how to bring it back? armor all and son of a gun just made it worse.

 

lubricating yourself! LOL! I say go for that one.

 

IMO, "lubricated for life" means that the part's life will be approximately equal to the life of the original lubricant. If possible, always buy high quality replacement chassis parts with grease fittings. Of course, that's only important if you intend to lubricate them on a regular basis .....

 

well i grew up with vehicals that had grease fittings, and since I change my own oil, and have everything require for greasing, if itll save me money by doing an exta 2 minutes of maintnence, im all for it.

 

I prefer lubricating yourself. I always tend to split the boots maybe because i'm overly concerned to ensure proper lube. That whole lube for life, I don't really buy into that. To each his own though -Mike-