Johnny Joint Maintenance

andy29847 said:
I admit it. I am enjoying keeping this thread alive. I am an attention whore in an old man's body. Today the story is that the UPS man brought my JJ tools. Wooo-weee! I might be a mechanic one day. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to getting sweaty and greasy working on my TJ this weekend. I have low expectations too. I expect I will find my JJs are in great shape and didn't need maintenance. They will probably still squeak after I finish too. Durn! Anyway, here is the $221 tools that none of my kids will recognize as valuable when they go through my stuff in a few years.

View attachment 276130


These tools won't be the only ones that will go in the unknown bin. I am a life time motorcyclist, and I have all kinds of MC tools that will probably not be thought of as valuable either. Which leads me to a confession and a story if you have the time.

I tend to get in a rush when I am on a project. If the project runs long, my stuff gets laid out in a variety of places, and that often causes me to make bad decisions when I can't find something. For instance, one time I needed a wrench. A quick search did not turn up the wrench I was looking for, so I grabbed the vice grips. If you have ever used vice grips, at least the old style ones from Craftsman, then you know they can bite. Mine drew blood. Here is my story:

https://advrider.com/f/threads/fucking-vice-grips.1004095/
Click to expand...
A). You're link doesn't allow non-members to read, which is a bummer cuz I like a good story.

B). Totally understand the tool issue and getting in a hurry. You should see my barn after I finish a project... It's pretty embarrassing, actually. I also have multiple of the same tool, because I can't find something, convince myself that someone has borrowed it, and go buy a new one, only to find the original buried in junk.
 
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andy29847 said:
I admit it. I am enjoying keeping this thread alive. I am an attention whore in an old man's body. Today the story is that the UPS man brought my JJ tools. Wooo-weee! I might be a mechanic one day. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to getting sweaty and greasy working on my TJ this weekend. I have low expectations too. I expect I will find my JJs are in great shape and didn't need maintenance. They will probably still squeak after I finish too. Durn! Anyway, here is the $221 tools that none of my kids will recognize as valuable when they go through my stuff in a few years.

View attachment 276130


These tools won't be the only ones that will go in the unknown bin. I am a life time motorcyclist, and I have all kinds of MC tools that will probably not be thought of as valuable either. Which leads me to a confession and a story if you have the time.

I tend to get in a rush when I am on a project. If the project runs long, my stuff gets laid out in a variety of places, and that often causes me to make bad decisions when I can't find something. For instance, one time I needed a wrench. A quick search did not turn up the wrench I was looking for, so I grabbed the vice grips. If you have ever used vice grips, at least the old style ones from Craftsman, then you know they can bite. Mine drew blood. Here is my story:

https://advrider.com/f/threads/fucking-vice-grips.1004095/
Click to expand...

Damn! Now I need to send a note to RockJock. My 2" tool is still on backorder from 22 Aug order. 2.5" arrived within 5 days of order.

Life's got me distracted elsewhere so it's not a rush but I now I want to be sure they didn't lose my order...

Good luck with the teardown!
 
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I only have two joints on mine, front uppers that I bought used. I installed them as is and was always curious how they were inside. They squeaked awhile back but after a few recent water crossings they shut up so I hadn't really planned on doing them but this thread peaked my curiosity. It took a fraction of an hour to pull the arm and use some sockets to get it apart, cleaned, greased and back together and into the Jeep. I guess the bigger ones are more difficult? It wasn't as bad as I expected. I guess all I'm really saying is if you are reading this and think you need the tool, try with sockets first and decide how tough it is.
 
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FarFire70 said:
I like supporting a company directly when costs are within a few bucks. Ones I had seen by third part vendors were not this low.

I may be cancelling my RockJock order and going with this one if I don't get a sufficient response.
Click to expand...

Just if it's $10 or so I'll buy form the vendor but since you've been waiting I don't see the need to honor this. $105 seems to be the best price on the 2.5" tool. So I'll get it from Rock Jock. They've gotten a lot of my money already.

If I had a local shop that I went thru and his price was a little more I'd still buy from him just to support him.
 
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I finsihed doing one control arm. I remember now that I don't like working on my Jeep. It went exactly as I expected. The Johnny Joints On the arm I pulled off the Jeep looked great. I'm going to check the others, but not today. :) I spent some money I could have used to buy candy. I didn't draw blood, but I have a pinched spot. My workshop is a mess. One good thing is that I do NOT need to go to the gym today. I have had my exercise.

Johnny Joint tools (2" & 2 1/2") - $221
Vise (broke my old one years ago) - $75
Big Boy Snap Ring Pliers - $40

Earlier in this story, I discovered that some of my Johnny Joints had grease zerks on both the joint housing and the bolt. I found that if I removed one of the zerks, I could pump grease through the Johnny Joint. I pulled this joint apart first because I wanted to see if the grease gun actually lubed the joint satisfactorily. It did.

IMG_4704-X3.jpg


Then I pulled the JJ out of the other end. This is the first time the inside of this joint has been looked at. It was well greased too.

IMG_4706-X3.jpg


The only hting I noticed during my inspection was that the JJ ball surface is a little rougher than expected. Some of the roughness must be from the oil carrier of the grease. The black suff on the balls would not wipe off. I expect this roughness is thesource of the squeaking I hear.

IMG_4707-X3.jpg


I reinstalled the arm I worked on and need to take a test drive. Given how working on Jeeps normally goes, I'll probably have death wobble now. :) Wish me luck.

Oh yeah, those big boy snap ring pliers will work in a pinch.

IMG_4710-X3.jpg
 
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Hearing a lot of people talk about how thier JJ are squeaking after 3 months worries me a bit.

Can anyone confirm that they added grease to thiers and the squeaking stopped?

I'm working on replacing everything with JJ but this is a daily driver and I definitely dont want to listen to non stop squeaking...we take long road trips in it....as well as take it off road.
 
Xposure said:
Can anyone confirm that they added grease to thiers and the squeaking stopped?
Click to expand...
Mine squeaked for a bit. I have cleaned and greased them because of this thread and they are still quiet.

Edit: I don't think I did grease them with the zirk in the housing, like I posted earlier it was just water that shut them up
 
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Xposure said:
Hearing a lot of people talk about how thier JJ are squeaking after 3 months worries me a bit.

Can anyone confirm that they added grease to thiers and the squeaking stopped?

I'm working on replacing everything with JJ but this is a daily driver and I definitely dont want to listen to non stop squeaking...we take long road trips in it....as well as take it off road.
Click to expand...
Mine have been daily driven for several years with very little maintainance and very little squeaking.
 
Soooo having some Lucas marine grease 'round from the boat, could that be a viable alternative for the zerks on the johnny joints? Marine grease especially formulated to prevent intrusion? Used it all over the boat including outboard steering and trim, trailer axle hubs, etc.
 
andy29847 said:
At the risk of being ridiculed....A johnny Joint will accept grease from a grease gun. What the JJ is missing is a place for the old grease to go (think u-joint). Lucky me, my control arms have zerks on both the JJ housing and the bolt. I removed the zerk from the bolt and was able to pump grease through the joint with little effort. Only thing is, I used the grease that was already in my grease gun. Now I need to get some of that super duper stuff and do it again. Note at the end of my little film clip, I make a cameo appearence. The look on my face is one of amazement. It is not just a run of the mill dumb look.

Click to expand...

here's the problem though...and you may have noticed when you took it apart...but what you're doing when you push grease through one zerk and out the hole for the other isn't really any different than using a zerk without an escape route. Either way, you're only getting grease into that channel around the "equator" between the two halves of poly. The poly is just to tight for grease to really get into the bearing surfaces.

My JJ experience:
I put Savvy UCA's on my rig in February 2019. I did not disassemble them for greasing. I initially had no squeaking. Over the course of a year I put about 2000 miles on them, some wheeling and some around town driving, all in dry and dusty Colorado. Around the same time I also installed a Currie front track bar.

At the end of that time I bought my LJ and swapped all the arms over to it. At the same time, I ditched the "X-flex" joints from my Rough Country LCA's which had zero preload after 15k miles, and installed JJ's onto the RC arms. I also did not disassemble and grease these.

Once I had the rig running again, everything was fine until June 2021, the first time I took it on a very mild trail that needed just enough flex to justify disconnecting the sway bar. On that trail, and ever since, the JJ's in the control arms have been squeaking. I initially blamed it on the 2.5" JJ I put on the lower arms, since they were the only change and I thought maybe arms and track bars got special treatment and I just didn't get that on the 2.5" since I bought the joints loose from another vendor. But I greased them about 3 weeks ago and still have squeaking, and then when I was setting my pinion angle after the tummy tuck last week, the uppers were squeaking as the arms rotated by my loosening and tightening the jam nuts. So I ordered the 2" tool and plan to tackle the uppers next.
 
Xposure said:
Hearing a lot of people talk about how thier JJ are squeaking after 3 months worries me a bit.

Can anyone confirm that they added grease to thiers and the squeaking stopped?

I'm working on replacing everything with JJ but this is a daily driver and I definitely dont want to listen to non stop squeaking...we take long road trips in it....as well as take it off road.
Click to expand...
Mine took a year and a half or more to start squeaking. Been on for several years now and I haven't taken them apart yet. The only time I notice is slow speeds around town.

I have noticed over the last couple years that they go back to being silent as soon as summer is over and the rain comes back. They only get squeaky when it's dry and hotter for some reason
 
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andy29847 said:
The only hting I noticed during my inspection was that the JJ ball surface is a little rougher than expected. Some of the roughness must be from the oil carrier of the grease. The black suff on the balls would not wipe off. I expect this roughness is thesource of the squeaking I hear.
Click to expand...

My thought when I saw that was that maybe they let it keep a little texture to give grease some place to hang out and stick to. If it was perfectly polished smooth I think the squeaking would be even worse, and the greasing interval would be much shorter. The black stuff is probably poly from the races sticking in that texture, due to lack of lubrication. Mine were the same way, and I'm hoping filling in that texture hasn't doomed the balls to squeaking forever so I end up having to buy new guts for 13 JJ's to get a clean start.

Like many in here, it is pretty frustrating that a company as well reputed as Currie sells a premium product that needs rebuilt before you can even use it, because the grease they put in it isn't enough and isn't the right kind. If they're already going to the trouble of putting any grease in it at all, it can't take that much more to do it right. But there's no joint that compares as far as I know, so I'll finish greasing and roll with my 13 Johnny Joints and just hope my experience ends up falling in line with that of blaine and jjvw. And if it doesn't, I'll probably just accept the tradeoff of a good, long lasting joint in exchange for more frequent service. The RC joints on my LCA's took grease easily but they were worn out in 15k miles.
 
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Mike_H said:
... I also have multiple of the same tool, because I can't find something, convince myself that someone has borrowed it, and go buy a new one, only to find the original buried in junk.
Click to expand...

I've been watching mechanics do that for years... A sure way to find a lost tool is to buy a replacement.

I'll have 20 JJ's on my Jeep, soon. I just ordered the tools 'cause, why mess around? I'll take each one apart and check it before it goes on, and that will bring peace of mind if nothing else.
 
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Does anyone know of a threaded "plug" that will seal the grease fitting hole? Since I won't be using the grease fittings, I want to seal the joints up better to prevent ingress of dust and water and keep grease from escaping through the fitting.
 
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