I've got a question on Johnny Joints

Farmergreg

Farmergreg

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Possibly a stupid question:
While I recover from the UCF skid plate order, I'm looking at the Savvy control arms with the Johnny Joints.
Each joint has a grease zerk on it.
I also notice that the bolts are drilled and also have a zerk.
Are they both greasing the same area, IE: the ball of the Johhny Joint?
 
Farmergreg said:
Possibly a stupid question:
While I recover from the UCF skid plate order, I'm looking at the Savvy control arms with the Johnny Joints.
Each joint has a grease zerk on it.
I also notice that the bolts are drilled and also have a zerk.
Are they both greasing the same area, IE: the ball of the Johhny Joint?
Click to expand...

I have the Savvy arms and they didn’t come with bolts with grease fittings on them. They’re just regular bolts.
 
Weird!
Was looking at them on Amazon and @Savvy. Bolts are drilled and have zerks in the pics.
 
No. The zerk on the JJ is just for the JJ. The bolt with the zerk, greases the through bolt of the JJ.
I've got the bolts with the zerks. My Bro-in-law just got the kit with the non-greaseable Grade 8 bolts. His would be considered stronger because it's not drilled for a grease passage.
 
Maybe @mrblaine or @Jerry Bransford can shed some light on this. Is there any advantage of running bolts with grease fittings with the Savvy arms? Or it it something that's simply not necessary?
 
When you tighten the JJ in the frame the sides of the bracket should be tight against the side of the JJ.
All of the pivot motion should be in the JJ itself not on not on the bolt.
That's why I was perplexed by the drilled bolts. Unless they do it to minimize corrosion?
 
I also have the bolts that have the zerk fitting on them. If i remember correctly, the bolt also has a hole that lets grease seep into the JJ also. I think it may just be another way to grease the unit. I asked the same question one time, Ill see if I can find the quote.
 
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Farmergreg said:
Possibly a stupid question:
While I recover from the UCF skid plate order, I'm looking at the Savvy control arms with the Johnny Joints.
Each joint has a grease zerk on it.
I also notice that the bolts are drilled and also have a zerk.
Are they both greasing the same area, IE: the ball of the Johhny Joint?
Click to expand...
The grease ports either at the body or the bolt are for the same area, the interface between the ball and urethane race. In order for the bolts to work, the ball has to have a hole in it. Not all of them do. They make them both ways. I prefer the bolts, but we don't get them with the holes drilled in the ball very often so we've had to resort to greasing through the body which is not as accurate as I would like to get the grease where it needs to be.
 
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That's pretty logical.
What's illogical is why they aren't consistent on the JJ having the internal hole for the grease to enter from the bolt?

If you mount the JJ's with the zerk down, they're vulnerable to damage.
If you mount them with the zerk up you probably can't grease them easily.
The bolt does look like the best way to grease them....IF the JJ has the hole.
Yet another conundrum!
 
On my LCA, the zerks are pointed up. But I did see that it would be difficult to grease them, so the 4 zerks at the axle ends have been replaced with 90* zerk fittings.
 
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