I rebuilt a couple of my lower control arms today. These were greased with energy suspension formula 5 about a year ago. I went wheeling a couple times with them and drove them a couple times this winter (salt).
Pretty disappointed to see the amount of corrosion present in the joint.
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The joints were still moving though and not squeaking. They were dry though... The grease that
was present was still the same consistency of the stuff when fresh, so there is that.
Based on the corrosion, I decided to hit the center balls with a zinc chromate solution. It's pretty easy to do at home, lots of DIY articles and videos around.
Here is a "raw" zinc plating, and one that I've polished with 000 steel wool.
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I do two zinc plating baths, then dip the parts in a yellow chromate bath. It's not as good as a commercial bath, but it is better than raw steel. The yellow is tough to photograph... These look pretty close to grade 8 bolts, but lighter.
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And, one final experiment...I assembled a joint and tried to grease it through the housing grease zerk. I got 4 pumps of grease in before the grease started squeezing out of areas.
Then I disassembled the joint again to see where the grease went.
View attachment 325023
It basically filled the outer "ring" area and put a witness on the ball, but no grease made it between the ball and the race... The joint was dry. I also got grease through the hole in the ball and on the bolt. So... That won't work.