Buy a new rubber

Have you seen the number of different shapes and sizes of rubbers?

Probably cheaper and easier to buy a new balljoint.

Thanks all.

Surprisingly little info on grease selection for this job available on the internyet. From quite a lot of poking around, all I could find was:-

www.300cforums.com/forums/tech-tips-diy-how/114874...l

"NOTE - When you service a serviceable ball joint with a Zerk fitting, make sure you add silicon grease only!"

I suppose this is an acknowledgement of the rubber compatability problem, which seems to be generally ignored. No indication of what type of silicon grease, but I couldn't get it here anyway.

(Can't think of any reason why a servicable joint would be different, except that people aren't supposed to put grease in non-servicable joints so the question doesn't arise}

On an air-cooled VW site I found:-

www.vw-resource.com/lubrication.html

"I use a moly-based grease for CV's, tie-rods and ball-joints, a lithium-based grease for the torsion-bar and steering knuckles."

VERY slim chance of finding anyone in the trade in Taiwan who would know or care about such distinctions, and recognisable greases don't seem to be available..

I did find one product, "Liki Hara" grease, which had some English on it, in fact it said "Made Product American" on the label.

Perhaps they mean they'd made the product seem American by writing bad English on the packaging, appealing to a more redneck-wannabe customer base?

This was one of the few I found which gave any clue as to what was in it, though a rather enigmatic one

"Moly none (3%). "

I'd guess their made-American corporate lawyers have a lot of fun cooking up product descriptions like that.

That's currently my best shot at a molybdenum grease, so maybe I'll just use the 3M lithium stuff.

Re the other (non-improvised) spare and repair suggestions, useful background but they'll probably have to wait until some contact with a tool using culture.

My GF is in Barcelona at the moment which would fit that description, but she'd probably find such enquiries a bit too challenging in Spanish.

Edited by edlithgow on 05/05/2017 at 03:19

Ed, there is white grease sold for lubricating airguns which is compatible with the rubber seals they have - any gunshops where you are based?

They do airsoft so maybe.

However, I should make it clear that I don't know rubber incompatability is a problem, though I can't see why it wouldn't be unless they use more oil resistant rubber than is used for brakes.

I've never seen it discussed, AT ALL, ANYWHERE, for track rod boots or CV gaiters, which is a bit odd considering the endless discussion on the internyet about motor oil choice, which (IMO) is usually a no brainer / non issue.

If it is a problem, it still may not matter as much as the lubricant performance, which might be why it is generally ignored and people go for a molybdenum grease.

I suppose the optimum might be a silicone grease with molybdenum in it. I dunno if this exists but if it does its a fair bet I couldn'y get it here.