I spent 2 hours searching for the answer and all I came up with is that some have them and some don't, not a way to tell when buying.

All the lower ball joints I have found do not specify if they have grease fittings or not. one site said that their products come with grease fittings when required but was not specific. anyway to tell by looking at them? whats the difference between running a regular ball joint without grease fittings? do the S4 FC's come with grease fittings from the factory?

this is an na street driven FC. I'm just assuming that grease fittings are better to have then the ball joints without. thanks in advance.

 

Grease fittings are better to have because it means you can maintain the joint, but honestly, almost no ball joints have grease fittings these days. Hell, my original Mazda joints lasted 250,000K with no maintenance, so I wouldn't be worried about having a grease fitting.

Don't see why you couldn't add one if you carefully drill and tap the lower housing though.

Materials used now for ball joints are far better than 20 years ago. Now we have low friction hard plastics which require little lubrication instead of metal on metal.

 

my lower ball joints started making a popping noise when turning lock to lock so i drilled a hole in the bottoms and put zerk fitting in. there tapered so no need to thread the whole. pumped them p up with grease and havent had any more poping sounds

 

huh, I honestly didn't realize grease fittings were that simple. I'm mainly trying to get rid of a bad steering wheel vibration at 65-70mph. I assume its the drivers side ball joint because I can lift up between the joint a little and the tie rods seem fine as well as the front wheel bearings (going to replace the bearings anyway though soon preemptively since they may be from 1986.)

aaron, can bad transmission mounts cause bad vibration in the steering wheel? I would assume that would cause chassis vibration (which I have a little but not much). the trans mount on the cross member has a lot of play so thats on the agenda along with y blocks. the steering wheel vibration is rediculous though so I'd like to take care of that first if the trans has little to do with it.

yes, I have searched for probably a collective 36 or more hours over the past 2 months on vibrations and what causes them in an FC. I can't really tell what is causing mine other then my trans and my ball joint. It does at highway speed if the clutch is in or out, in any gear I can be in at that speed. it almost goes away around tighter highway corners so I'm pretty sure it has to be ball joints or wheel bearings but wheel bearings are less likely as I checked them per FSM and they seem ok.

 

Have you had it aligned? And don't forget wheel bearings, wheel balance, and check your tires to make sure they're worn evenly. All those things can contribute to vibrations.

 

Any kind of slop in the front end will cause vibrations. This means:

-ball joints
-inner tie rod ends
-outer tie rod ends
-wheel bearings!
-steering rack
-bushings
-wheel balance weights

You will feel front end vibration in the steering wheel. Chassis vibration felt through the seat will generally be drivetrain related.

 

I have had vibration in the steering wheel for some time now. the tie rod ends look ok and have no free play. the wheel bearings check ok but am replacing those down the road in a bit, the wheels have been balanced multiple times with different tires and that didn't do anything. I have not actually checked the steering rack itself (manual rack), bushings are probably called for as well though. I had the car aligned when I got it 3 years ago but not since as I don't drive it in winter but the alignment din't cure vibrations almost at all anyway.

I think I'll do ball joints first, then the wheel bearings, then the energy suspension master bushing kit. where specifically am I checking the steering rack? where it is held down to the car I assume? anywhere else? thanks a lot, I'm happy to finally be tackling this issue as I've dealt with it for a long time due to lack of funds and repairing my gf's and my daily drivers.

 

I had exactly the vibration that you described. I noticed a split rubber seal on the ball and also had some vertical movement in the joint. The other joint had a good seal and had no problems. I replaced both joints as they were very old. I keep the good one as a spare.

Babbs

 

well, I just ordered my ball joints, they were cheap at $40 for both sides so I don't know how good they are, should last long enough to be worth it though at that price. they have a 1 year warrenty anyway.

thanks for the info babbs, I'll update when I install. hopefully they fix most of the problem. I have vertical movement in the joint as well.

 

sorry for the hijack, but where did you order the ball joints from? im currently trying to find a supplier but no one is australia stocks them anymore.

Any links to an online store? if so that would be great!

cheers

david

 

I just went to google shopping and typed in "1986 mazda rx7 ball joints", then cross checked part numbers with other stores to make sure they were the right ones. ended up getting mine off a decent seller on ebay with good ratings from a lot of people. remember, 88 and up you can't replace the ball joint, you need the whole arm. you can try and find used 86-88 LCA's and then get new joints but you also need the sway bar links from 86-88. maybe even the s4 sway bar too but I'm not sure on that part. Hope you have an S4! good luck.

try mazdatrix if you can't find anything on ebay. I'm sure they would ship to australia. shipping will be a bit more for you from the states though. ebay should give you some cheaper so try there first. my part number was K9427 but there was also one other part number in a different format from another company as well. my number matched a few others and had verification it was for all sub models of the 86 rx7.

 

I ordered my ball joints from the Mazda dealer. They give me a 15-20% discount which helps with the price. Looking at my receipts, I paid $60 CDN a piece. Hmmm.... a little pricier than $40 US for the pair.

My car is a 88' and I can replace the ball joints separately so maybe 1988 US versions require the complete LCA.

 

in the US, I believe that 88 was a half year. so some are s4 and some are s5. 88.5 and up will require LCA or switch to s4 units. I THINK. its probably in the FAQ. its easy to tell an s5 from an s4 though. if you have black bulky side moldings and non round tail lights then its an s4 and you have the good LCA's that can be replaced.

 

so I got my ball joints. they DID have a grease fitting despite the photo but $40 is $40 bucks. I put the drivers side on, it got rid of a lot of vibration but not all. still have passenger side to do. btw, the boot on the old unit was gone. just not there this time so I guess it just fell off in the last 2 weeks. lol, no wonder it was bad.

QUESTION on install. I was confused as to where I should place the joint in the pinch bolt. they are longer on the top, so if it is flush with the top of the pinch bolt hole (like stock was) then the boot was not up to the bottom of the spindle hole. I brought the boot up to where it contacted the spindle ( by sliding the joint further up, so the joint is past the top of the pinch bolt hole) and slid it up a tiny bit more so the boot just barely had compression on it. is that right? I talked to my brother who is a recent auto tech grad and he said it didn't matter as long as the boot was compressed at least a little. don't know if my explanation makes sense to you guys, sorry.

 

Your expalnation of your concern made sense. What I recall, on my ball joints there was a groove cast around the shaft of the ball assembly and the retaining bolt that locks the ball joint in place passes into/through the groove. There was no adjust to be made. The ball joint top protrudes above the top of the attachment point. My boots are right up against the attachment point. The main thing here is that there were no adjustments to be made because of the groove/bolt arrangement which positioned things properly. Perhaps the after-market part is not exactly like the original.

Did that make any sense?

Babbs

 

my new one is identical to the old one, it is just longer on the top of the joint. I have a groove but it did not seem to play a part with the pinch bolt. I guess I'll try to line that groove up with the pinch bolt now. everything bolted together fine and the pinch bolt went in without any problem despite me not trying to line the groove up. maybe it ended up lined up where I had it? I'll check.

 

I checked and put on my passenger side joint as well. ya, the pinch bolt barely touches in that groove, didn't even notice it the first time but it ended up where it needed to be. the vibrations are nearly gone now, I think a new set of tires and an alignment are in order to get rid of the rest. my toe is off on the passenger side and the tires have a few flat spots on the edges.

double checked tie rod ends, the are good. I'll save up over winter and replace the wheel bearings, tie rods and do at least a front bushing kit next year. if my engine doesn't blow before then, excessive oil consumption.

 

I saved the ball joint with the wrecked boot just to show people what can happen when that boot fails. The amount of play in the joint was significant. The other one had a good boot and was very tight. As long as the boot rubber is fine I don't believe one needs grease nipples.

Glad to hear that your vibes are mostly gone.

Babbs

 

Usually ball joints that have grease fittings have floating boots with loose bottom edges. This style of boot tends to let more dirt into the joint and people tend to not clean the grease fittings before applying more grease to the joint. These 2 factors combine to greatly reduce life on steering components. Also, usually the parts with grease fittings are from the low end series from each manufacturer.

I prefer buying ball joints and tie rod ends without grease fittings since they are typically well sealed and in my experience have lasted longer.

Just my 2 cents

 

Auto manufacturers probably haven't used grease nipples for 30+ years. Cleanliness goes a long way when it comes to longevity of parts. Everyone should keep inspecting those boots.

 

well the boots on these seem to be sealed very tight on the bottom side. I hear that as long as I maintain the joint (i.e. check and add grease at every oil change) that they can out last non maintenence type joints. they just have to be greased. old grease can be pushed out the top when new grease is added but the boot seems to be nice and tight so as long as it holds up I think I can get at least the amount of miles that a non maintenance joint gets. this is just slightly more of a hassle but I check all fluid levels, and will be doing regular checks on my suspension at every oil change anyway. takes 5 minutes to grease them some more so I don't mind.

 

If you see a zerk fitting they are greaseable, if not then you know they are non serviceable.