Has anyone drilled and tapped the lower ball joint to add a grease nipple?

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I certainly prefer zerks on ball joints. Can it be done without either damaging the ball or getting metal shards into the joint?

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

scratch that idea. there is no room to get a grease gun on the nipple.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I have pumped the lower ball joint boot full of grease using a grease needle, and a dental tool to let air out around the top bolt. I did not know the history of the ball joints on my '97, and I wanted to be sure to keep them lubed. I also lubed the upper ball joints the same way when they began to squeak. I hate "lubed for death" suspension parts.

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'97 E 300 D

I always enjoyed the "change oil and lube joints" session on my american cars... but the 30 years the unlubed joints these MB joints are lasting sure puts to shame the greaseable joints of the others!

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
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My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

That's because they're over-engineered. The ball joints on a 123 are only a little smaller than the ball joints on my 2003 Dodge, which has 1000# more on the front end than the whole Mercedes weighs.

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if you use a flat bottomed cutting reamer rather than a drill bit, and was very careful with your depth, you could possibly do it. You'd also need a bottoming tap. You'd need brake cleen to remove the shavings and regrease with a high quality crown and chassis grease.

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'95 S320 LWB
'87 300SDL
'04 E500 wagon 4matic

I did this years ago with my old 123, it worked well.
Some where on here I have mentioned that I drilled a hole into my rear wheel bearings cavity on the arms & pumped grease into them. Got rid of a wheel bearing noise.
I like zerks on joints, when you pump grease in, you keep water & dust out. Dont burst the rubber seals though!
My jeep has zerks all over the front end. When ever its been through water it gets a grease.

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

When they squeak, they'r dead and need replacing...

As Funola said, scratch that idea with the lower joint. as I remember looking at mine last week with that same idea. there is that piece that bolts on just under the Ball Joint, think the tie rod bolts to it. there is just no room to get a grease gun in between the 2 pieces.
Maybe an angle zerk would work, but would have to be long enough to stick out between the avail space which seems tight.

Some type of plastic tubing like the black vac line from the vac pump to brake booster of proper size could be heat shrunk to some sort of pipe nipple and stick out between the space with a zerk heat shrunk to the tube.

My lower L/F on the 85 has a deteriorated rubber boot, so got me to thinking, what if.........?


Charlie

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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

A Friend of mine wanted to go in through the bottom of the Joint.
I know he got as far as buying the Grease Zerks; after that He has not commented on it.

I think a hole can be drilled there without issues but I am not sure there is enough available Metal there for threading.

If someone does not like the option of inserting a needle through the Boot they could buy the Tool to press the Lower Ball Joint off of the Control arm and remove the Boot and Apply new Grease.
With the correct Tool the job would not be a terrible amount of work and would not need to be done often.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

What we have here is a difference of opinion. I lubricate a lot of things that you and many others would just replace. I consider squeaking a warning that lube is needed. A check for play in the upper ball joints showed them to NOT be worn, just dry. The puzzler is that they are designed with the grease reservoir, the boot, below the ball joint. It took a while for the grease to make the climb.

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'97 E 300 D

Maybe a flexible grease hose or a bent copper pipe to a zerk will work?

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

The knuckle assembly which I thought had a good lower ball joint turned out to be not so good after I cleaned and greased it up. The rust was keeping it tight and gave the illusion it had no movement. Anyway I got the bad ball joint out and did a test drilling. See this thread about how I got the ball joint out.

Red neck lower ball joint removal

The bottom of the ball joint is about 1/4" thick, plenty to tap a thread into. The metal is soft and easy to drill. I'll have to take a closer look to see if it is possible to somehow attach a grease fitting that is accessible.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

If you are able to Tap it a Grease fitting that points straigh down should be fine.
3 types to chose from.
One you can sipmply drive into the hole.
One that I guess is self tapping.
Or, one you have to Tap the Hole for.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel