So far not impressed with Johnny Joints

taylormade73

taylormade73

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I installed Savvy double adjustable control arms in all 8 locations a few months ago. They certainly made adjusting my pinion angles a breeze. However, I couldn't get the Johnny Joints to take grease through the zerk fittings. I posted this issue on this forum and was told that the joint tolerances are too tight to accept grease through the zerks, and that I should run them as is. So, I have followed that very advice for the past 2-3 months, while occasionally trying to grease them, albeit unsuccessfully. Other than street driving I've only wheeled it once since the install.

Well, I developed a squeak a week or two ago after installing my Fox remote reservoir shocks, which made me think it was them. So, I fiddled around with the torque on the post nuts until I was thoroughly disgusted and just conceded that I would have to change out the poly shock bushings with rubber.

A week later before I had a chance to change out the poly shock bushings, I noticed my disco bushings were worn out and thought I had found my "squeak." Hooray! Not the shocks right? I then ordered and installed an Antirock 2 days ago. Well, still squeaking. WTF!

While bored in my garage tonight I found the motivation to further investigate the squeak source. So I crawled underneath and pushed my Jeep up and down on the body to see if I could locate the squeak origination point. Well, I'll be damned if it didn't sound like it was coming from my control arms. So, I checked to see if they were binding under load at ride height. I loosened all the bolts, and they were all free enough to remove from the joints, so no obvious binding issues. While bolts were still loose I decided to check for the squeak again...i pushed up and down on the Jeep and ZERO squeak. WTF!

So i jacked it up and removed the lower control arms completely to inspect the joints more closely. It seems as though the lower joints of each CA are dry and very difficult to move (almost to the point of being seized) while the upper joints on the same CA move freely. I tried again to get them to take grease through the zerks and still could not. So I rotated each joint's center ball and attempted to manually grease it, which freed it up some and got it to stop squeaking. However, the two lower joints still don't move as freely as the upper joints on the same CA.

What is the point of having a zerk fitting on a joint that won't accept grease? Do I really have to disassemble and rebuild the joint and manually grease them? How long between greasings in the joints? 2-3 months and this already. I am flipping baffled because I've read so much positive feedback and experiences with Johnny Joints (Savvy and Currie products, particularly their CAs). I'm at a loss because I DO NOT want to have to maintenance these joints to this extent every few months nor do I want to live with a squeaking Jeep. Thoughts, opinions, advice other than "Mine work fine and/or I've never had a problem with mine" are greatly appreciated.

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I jack mine up by the frame to relax the JJ a bit. It takes grease but with a firm hold on the lever action grease gun. I also try to twist the arms a bit to get another half pump in.
 
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The Duroflex joint, now with cool images that PROVE it is the best joint on the market, self centering, over 100* of misalignment! WOW! I can go upside down in my Jeep and the flex will still allow my tires to stay on the ground!
 
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There's so much misunderstanding and naviety about control arm joints but it's just not worth getting into it with some.

Johnnyjoints don't really need greasing until it's time to rebuild them which can be a long time until that's needed. Before that happens, the tolerances inside are too tight to accept grease through the zerk. If/when they get worn enough to reduce the tolerances inside then the zerk might work. So far, at over ten years old, my Johnnyjoints are still not worn enough to require rebuilding and they're still not worn enough inside to make greasing them through the zerk something I'd bother trying to do. When they're worn enough to require that, mine will get greased. Until then? It's not really needed.

Once people understand that and realize they're not a low tolerance device with enough space inside to accept grease through the zerk then it becomes a non-issue. My thinking is the zerk will be useful once the tolerances are looser inside, loose enough that grease can be squeezed in via the zerk. Until then, I don't see the need to worry about a non-issue like that. And with mine being over ten years old, they're still good and tight and I'm just waiting until they finally need to be rebuilt.

It's all in understanding them and realizing not everything needs much regular greasing to work well. Other brands? No doubt greasing would be easier and needed more often.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
There's so much misunderstanding and naviety about control arm joints but it's just not worth getting into it with some.

Johnnyjoints don't really need greasing until it's time to rebuild them which can be a long time until that's needed. Before that happens, the tolerances inside are too tight to accept grease through the zerk. If/when they get worn enough to reduce the tolerances inside then the zerk might work. So far, at over ten years old, my Johnnyjoints are still not worn enough to require rebuilding and they're still not worn enough inside to make greasing them through the zerk something I'd bother trying to do. When they're worn enough to require that, mine will get greased. Until then? It's not really needed.

Once people understand that and realize they're not a low tolerance device with enough space inside to accept grease through the zerk then it becomes a non-issue. My thinking is the zerk will be useful once the tolerances are looser inside, loose enough that grease can be squeezed in via the zerk. Until then, I don't see the need to worry about a non-issue like that. And with mine being over ten years old, they're still good and tight and I'm just waiting until they finally need to be rebuilt.

It's all in understanding them and realizing not everything needs much regular greasing to work well. Other brands? No doubt greasing would be easier and needed more often.
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Well, four of the joints on mine need grease (axle side joints on lower CAs). They are dry as a bone inside, partially seized, and squeak like mad--all at less than 3 months old. The joint is tighter than the owner of the company I work for when we tell him we need new work shirts. So, what do i do to grease the joint until it becomes "worn enough" to accept grease via the zerk? It can't be good for the joint to run it as is with it dry enough to cause the squeaking and significant restriction of movement. And why should one have to live with the squeaking, as it has become quite pronounced?
 
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@Jerry Bransford ,

I'm glad you've had no issues with your JJs and your post is full of information regarding that. Of course that leads me to a bunch of questions so I'll ask a couple.

What material are JJs made out of?

Are they sealed to keep mud, dust, sand and whatever out of them?

Do yours squeak?

Maybe taylormade73 got some that were assembled on a Monday by some guy with a hangover that didn't realize his grease gun was empty.
 
Interesting. I upgraded to JJ's back in the spring. Mine took grease from day one, but I was using a power grease gun. There was certainly resistance to it going in and in only took a stroke or 2 before they were full. I've greased them one other time since with the same result
 
taylormade73 said:
Well, four of the joints on mine need grease (axle side joints on lower CAs). They are dry as a bone inside, partially seized, and squeak like mad--all at less than 3 months old. The joint is tighter than the owner of the company I work for when we tell him we need new work shirts. So, what do i do to grease the joint until it becomes "worn enough" to accept grease via the zerk? It can't be good for the joint to run it as is with it dry enough to cause the squeaking and significant restriction of movement. And why should one have to live with the squeaking, as it has become quite pronounced?
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They don't need to be worn to be greased. I've never heard of them needing grease in that short amount of use, so something odd is going on and I've never heard one of the hundreds I've used make any noise.

I would pull them apart and use the Redline CV2 grease on the inner race and ball and put them back together. If they make noise after that, then I would seriously like to get my hands on them to see what is going on because this is not normal or common.

If I had a control arm joint that exhibited the troubles you are having, I wouldn't use them again, ever. The fact that I have been using them with only a smattering of issues for the last 17 years to the tune of 100's of joints should help to understand that this is not the norm.

The restriction is normal. I am not able to move any of the ones I use without sticking a long extension in the hole as a lever or sticking them in the mount and using a bolt to hold them so I can align the ball.
 
taylormade73 said:
Well, four of the joints on mine need grease (axle side joints on lower CAs). They are dry as a bone inside, partially seized, and squeak like mad--all at less than 3 months old. The joint is tighter than the owner of the company I work for when we tell him we need new work shirts. So, what do i do to grease the joint until it becomes "worn enough" to accept grease via the zerk? It can't be good for the joint to run it as is with it dry enough to cause the squeaking and significant restriction of movement. And why should one have to live with the squeaking, as it has become quite pronounced?
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Pull them apart and use some Redline CV-2 on them.
 
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mrblaine said:
They don't need to be worn to be greased. I've never heard of them needing grease in that short amount of use, so something odd is going on and I've never heard one of the hundreds I've used make any noise.

I would pull them apart and use the Redline CV2 grease on the inner race and ball and put them back together. If they make noise after that, then I would seriously like to get my hands on them to see what is going on because this is not normal or common.

If I had a control arm joint that exhibited the troubles you are having, I wouldn't use them again, ever. The fact that I have been using them with only a smattering of issues for the last 17 years to the tune of 100's of joints should help to understand that this is not the norm.

The restriction is normal. I am not able to move any of the ones I use without sticking a long extension in the hole as a lever or sticking them in the mount and using a bolt to hold them so I can align the ball.
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Yes, I have to do the same with the other joints. However, the four lower ones required a significant amount of force to move them and then the movement didn't feel smooth. Will be taking them apart to diagnose.
 
taylormade73 said:
Yes, I have to do the same with the other joints. However, the four lower ones required a significant amount of force to move them and then the movement didn't feel smooth. Will be taking them apart to diagnose.
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The lowers always take more force by a large amount than the uppers. They have a much larger ball and race so the surface area at the interface is higher. Nothing for you on why they aren't smooth. Clean the grease off when you get them apart and post up some pics so we can see if anything odd is going on because none of this makes any sense.
 
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