My '89 toyota had grease nipples on the upper and lower ball joints. They were trouble free for 300,000 kms. My new tacoma doesn't appear to have any. Can they be installed? Can the existing original equipment joints be drilled and tapped for grease fittings?
Any fitting can be drilled and fitted with a grease nipple. HOWEVER, when you drill into the fitting bits and pieces of drilled metal are going to wind up inside the fitting. Not a good thing. I had an old Ford with lubed for life fittings that eventually started getting noisy. I drilled and installed greae nipples and it cured the squeak, I wouldn't recomend this on a new vehicle unless you removed and dismantled the fittings so that you could remove any metal remnants from the drilling and tapping. Metal inside a ball joint will cause some really accelerated wear.
max-income
Get one of handy injection needles that fit on a grease gun and either inject the boot or work the tip of the needle around the edge of the boot and the molded flange on the ball joint housing
Totally agree. Plus, I've read you can really weaken the ball joint that way. I guess it may be designed a little thicker if it were to have a hole in it.
-PM
Magnetize the drill bit and it will retain most of the chips. Ken
Or, wait until they wear out, then replace them with ball joints fitted with grease zerks. I did this on my 4Runner (custom front axle) and the new ball joints were greaseable, seem to be working fine. Plus they have a lifetime warrantee, unlike the original non-greaseable ones.
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