Greasing Lower Dynatrac ProSteer Ball Joints

WJCO

WJCO

Meme King
This has come up a couple of times, so I thought I'd add a thread here. This was new info to me as well. A lot of the newer ProSteer Ball joints have a 'not so common' style of grease zerk on the lower ball joint. It has a small concave dish with a small check ball in the center. It looks like this.

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To add grease, you can temporarily remove it and install a more common zerk fitting for greasing and then put the original one back, however you can also buy a needle for your grease gun that will work just fine. There are a few different types of needles, so make sure and fit the right one. Chances are if you have a grease gun kit, it will already contain multiple sizes. It looks like this.

IMG_20161212_205733_771.jpg

Install the needle on your grease gun and firmly press it into the zerk on the ball joint keeping it very straight. When you pull the grease handle, if you're doing it correctly, you will feel resistance on the handle and you will not see any grease leaking anywhere. If you are doing it incorrectly, you won't feel any resistance and you will see grease leaking around the needle or see grease coming out of the needle tip instead of going into the zerk.

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Basically what is happening is the grease coming out of the needle is overcoming that check ball in the zerk and going into the joint. As you can see, it is a very narrow stream of grease going into the joint so the needle has to be tight and straight in the grease zerk.

IMG_20161212_205710_209.jpg
 
highoctane

highoctane

Caught the Bug
That kind of grease fitting is what I swapped a lot of mine out to. It's a lot easier to grease a lot of the joints on my Jeep with those high pressure fittings that require a needle fitting to grease. I have a straight needle adapter and long 90 deg needle adapter for my grease gun. Takes me about 2 minutes to grease all the fittings on my Jeep now.


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WJCO

WJCO

Meme King
highoctane said:
That kind of grease fitting is what I swapped a lot of mine out to. It's a lot easier to grease a lot of the joints on my Jeep with those high pressure fittings that require a needle fitting to grease. I have a straight needle adapter and long 90 deg needle adapter for my grease gun. Takes me about 2 minutes to grease all the fittings on my Jeep now.


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Click to expand...

I agree it seems way faster. It's a little bit to get used to with keeping it straight though. It also is a lot cleaner, IMO, you don't have to deal with grabbing the end of the gun to pull it off the zerk everytime.
 
Slimebones

Slimebones

Active Member
That fitting also comes on Adams driveshafts at the CV joint, which I need to remember next time I grease. Look very closely, it is there.
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Awesome post and yes, a needle fitting like that and NOT the kind that's super thin actually sharp is what you need. If I might ask, where did you find yours? I know they can be hard to track down.
 
cozdude

cozdude

Guy with a Red 2-Door
wayoflife said:
Awesome post and yes, a needle fitting like that and NOT the kind that's super thin actually sharp is what you need. If I might ask, where did you find yours? I know they can be hard to track down.
Click to expand...

I would like to know as well cause I have the actual needle looking one that comes to a point
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
cozdude said:
I would like to know as well cause I have the actual needle looking one that comes to a point
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the wrong fitting. The one that WJCO posted up allows you to push on the center of the zerk. The weight of you on it seals it and allows the grease to enter with force. I have seen them at a local farm store but if I recall, I picked up my last one from Napa years ago.
 
WJCO

WJCO

Meme King
Slimebones said:
That fitting also comes on Adams driveshafts at the CV joint, which I need to remember next time I grease. Look very closely, it is there.
Click to expand...

Good info. Thanks.

wayoflife said:
Awesome post and yes, a needle fitting like that and NOT the kind that's super thin actually sharp is what you need. If I might ask, where did you find yours? I know they can be hard to track down.
Click to expand...

I saw some at Oreillys, but I wasn't sure which one to get and they were fricken expensive if you buy each piece individually. I think like 12-15 bucks each. So I went on eBay and got a kit that contained a lot of fittings, including the sharp one you mentioned along with a wall mount for my gun. Here's the one I got. All the fittings seem identical in quality to some other ones I already had laying around, so I don't suspect any issues for now.

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cozdude

cozdude

Guy with a Red 2-Door
wayoflife said:
Yeah, that's the wrong fitting. The one that WJCO posted up allows you to push on the center of the zerk. The weight of you on it seals it and allows the grease to enter with force. I have seen them at a local farm store but if I recall, I picked up my last one from Napa years ago.
Click to expand...

Yea I figured it was considering how it snapped on the first one I tried to grease due to all my pressure trying to move that ball :donttell:
 
WJCO

WJCO

Meme King
cozdude said:
I would like to know as well cause I have the actual needle looking one that comes to a point
Click to expand...

The little sharp one that you're referring to is so that you can poke holes in the boots of joints that aren't serviceable, like your factory tie rods. Assuming you would want to grease them. The needle is small enough that the boot hole closes up pretty well when you pull the needle out so dust is still prevented from getting in. I'm sure it's not a perfect seal, but I've used those needles for years with no issues that I know of. Some joints you can even get the needle in between the boot and the stud and not have to poke a hole at all. But for 20 bucks, you can get an aftermarket tie rod end at the local parts store anyways if the joint wears out, so hard to say if the needle is even worth using.

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