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On 20 May 2001, at 13:03, jesse and monica wrote: > i noticed a lot of talk lately about greasing the ball joints. i have > the original ball joints on my car and they are still nice and tight. > i would like to keep them that way! i think russ mentioned something > about fitting a grease nipple on them? how do you go about this? do i > remove the plastic plug at the top and fit the grease nipple there? Yes, that's what you can do, but you must be VERY careful not to cause more harm than good. The most common response that most people have is to put too much grease in there. This won't seem like too much, but the next time you check them you will find the boot to be split. THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do for these is to keep the boot intact. If you decide to add grease, squeeze the boot between your fingers and pump in grease until you just begin to feel the grease pushing out inside the boot. Stop then. It is recommended that you then remove the grease fitting and reinstall the plugs so that the next person in there doesn't get the wrong idea. If you do this every 100,000 miles that will be plenty. If the boots get torn, no amount of grease will save them. > Also on the same subject of greasing the front end. i have become > paranoid about greasing my front axle. all this talk about how > difficult it is to remove the front bushings and having to custom > fabricate the parts has gotten me shaken in my boots. i don't want to > have to go through will all that stuff. so to get to my question, the > seals that are at the end of where the torsion bars come out and > connect with the sway arms, are they hard to replace? mine are dry and > old and i would like to prevent water from being able to get in there > as well as dirt. It's worthwhile to go thru the motions of checking everything out, but don't take anything apart unless there's really something wrong. The trailing arm seals don't really do that much. The important thing is that you grease all 4 grease fittings regularly. Unlike the ball joints, these fittings cannot be overlubricated. The grease will keep the water out as long as there is sufficient grease in there. As Leon pointed out: You MUST keep these bearings lubricated! - ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------- Search old messages on the Web! Visit http://www.vwtype3.org/list/