Greaseable or sealed ball joints?

What's the opinion on greasable or sealed ball joints? MOOG greasable are ~$30 a piece for top and ~ $40 for bottom. Spicer sealed joints are ~$65 for the pair of upper/lower.

Spicer is factory, Moog has a good reputation. Thoughts?

Its mainly preference. If you plan to be off the pavement or in deep water, etc... I would go greaseable. I prefer them either way but sealed ones last just as long from talking to my driveline guy when kept on the pavement.

It really comes down to one thing, are you going to grease them regularly or not? If you are get the grease able one if you forget or tend not to do it then get the sealed ones. Grease able ones don't last very long if you don't grease them compared to the non grease able ones.

O.. and as far as brands go... Spicer all the way. Moog quality has gone down hill as of late.

I would go grease able and grease them every oil change. Ford did not want these trucks to last forever, you need to buy a new one. The non-grease able ones lasted the expected "life" of the truck.

I'm on the fence on this. I started using non greasable universal joints on a friend's suggestion and I have had the same set in my half ton for almost 80k miles. Just parts store brand too. Greasable is great if you keep them greases and use that oportunity to displace water and muck. If you have a pavement princess, it probably matters little. Moog ball joints are not all that well loved in the dodge community but it takes a "special" kind of guy to love a dodge. [emoji6]

The next time I replace ujoints and ball joints they will be sealed...non greasable as greasing them is a pain and messy

I'm leaning towards spicer sealed ones. That's what I have now and I'm not sure I need them yet, but I'm evaluating this whole front end this spring and bringing into the 21st century. I bought this Dana 60 off CL in fall of 2013 and immediately threw it under my truck and haven't done a thing to it in nearly 20,000 miles and 3 winters plowing snow. And it is holding up great I'm just getting some slight tread block abnormalities on my inside rib (1 of 5 on the tire) of treadblocks, only on the driver side, so I need an alignment, and am planning ahead if they discover some components are shot.

Sealed for me.
Went back with dana/spicer. Best price at bronco graveyard.
If I ever switch, it'll be xrf.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Neither... Always king pins for me!

Greaseable joints for everything though. Grease every oil change. Yeah it's a PITA but I force myself to do it and it only takes a few minutes. My trucks occasionally get wet, biggest factor for greaseable joints. I go back and forth on ujoints though, as I tend to break them. Solid last longer if they stay above water but anything more than a bit of splash and the rollers are gone. I think bigger joints are the solution to that problem.

Grease them. Nothing ever wore out from over lubrication.

"Live time greased sealed units" are "life limited to how ever much grease you don't lose over time".

Spend a couple bucks for a Harbor Fright air operated grease gun. You will then plug in, pull the trigger, and move to next zerk.. When you push out the old grease, you push out the old dirt/water, and rust. Sealed units are only as good as the seal, which always fails eventually.

Plus.. if you take the time to grease your rig.. you also will inspect it while greasing it..

When I'm hurtling down the road with a 9,000 lb truck, pulling 18,000 lbs of "chit" on the trailer behind it.. I like knowing I had a recent look at all the parts that keep me in the right lane and rolling on 4 [well in my case 6+4 trailer wheels, which have zerks in the hubs also cause I put them there.]

I have to agree with Moog not being what they used to be.....

When I bought the Excursion 8 years ago, there was a clunk in the front end that was diagnosed at the dealer as ball joints (It wasn't, it was the stabilizer bar end links which I finally replaced 7 years later.... ). The dealer replaced the ball joints with MOOG Grease-able Ball Joints at ~65,000 Miles. I have kept them greased, since I do all my own maintenance. If you read my Axle Noise thread, you would know that I had to do ball joints this past weekend. The truck had just turned 162,000 miles, it is my "family car" and a 100% pavement princess. These joints weren't just a bit worn, the whole knuckle would flop back and forth at least a half inch.......

Since this was discovered late in the afternoon on Saturday, I had to go with what I could find. I ended up with Advance Auto's Driveworks "HD" ball joints....... I'm not expecting anything earth-shattering with them..... but at this point, they were much better than what I had. They are grease-able, and I will make sure to keep them greased. I am also going to find a high quality set, (Spicer, XRF or the like) to have on the shelf for the time these fail....... I may go with the sealed Spicers, since I've read some good reports on them, and if I get a decent life out of them, I will be happy......

The biggest thing, grease-able or not, is that replacing ball joints SUCKS!!!!!

AcIdBuRn02ZTS said:

O.. and as far as brands go... Spicer all the way. Moog quality has gone down hill as of late.

Click to expand...

Does Spicer sell grease-able ball joints? I tend towards the grease-able side of the debate (although, for Mercedes and VW, I've heard that sealed OEM is best), but for something like that, quality is of the utmost importance, and if Moog really is having quality control issues as of late...

Moog sadly moved a lot of their manufacturing overseas and quality has suffered a bit. Raybestos Professional seems to be more on par as far as quality goes. Not sure if Spicer makes greaseable balljoints... I know they offer both flavors of u-joints but not sure on other components.

I would say you need to grease way more often than every oil change. More like every other week, or at least once a month.
Kinda depends on the grease you use though.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk