Ray,
My daily driver is a 92 Ford Crown Vic retired police car. It has grease
zerks and 233,000 miles at present. I have never had to replace any steering
or suspension components yet. But I was recently at the Ford dealership to
discuss another maintenance issue with a mechanic. He was working on a
Mercury Grand Marquise of recent vintage with 60,000 miles. It had no grease
fittings and one worn out ball joint. We discussed the benefit of zerks and
we both decided they should be there. Replacement of ball joints and tie rod
ends is a regular business there. He said replacement parts from Ford do not
have zerks, but those from Motorcraft (a different division) do. My son also
had a 1990 Pontiac GP with a separated ball joint at 100,000 miles. Again no
zerks. Factory installed zerks are very cheap insurance against front end
wear when compared to the cost of replacing just one component for hundreds
of dollars. I would gladly pay the extra dollar for the cost of zerks on a
new car if they were offered. But the factory would rather save that buck,
since most new car buyers either don't know what a zerk is or if they did,
don't think about it until a part fails.
Dave Homstad
56 Dodge D500
-----Original Message-----
From: Forward Look Mopar Discussion List
[mailto:L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Ray Jones
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 10:53 AM
To: L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [FWDLK] Lubricate THIS....
The answer is just far better materials and precision parts. Sealed
bearings and permanently lubed Ball Joints changed it all.
We just retired a 90 Plymouth Voyager with 275K on it. It still has all
the original bearings and exhaust. We did replace the front struts and
other suspension parts at about 230K, but that is mainly due to our
address for the last 7 years starts "When you leave the paved road..."
Gravel roads are tough on 'em, especially the way I drive! I always
worked for Imports and thru the early 90's, we got to replace the Ball
Joints (paid well, so we looked for them), but after about '95, we
never had any wear out until very high milage.
We also lost tune ups with electronic Ignition. Which on some of our
models evolved into no Distributor at all. Each plug had it's own coil
controlled off the crank pickup and the Computer.
I still think that Oil changes are due at 3500 or so, it's cheap
insurance.
Ray
On Jul 25, 2006, at 11:21 PM, eastern sierra Adj Services wrote:
> ............ "you" should lubricate your car's chassis
> about ONCE per month, or every 1000 miles....
> I know: the new-57's , with their ball joint suspensions, etc, require
> fewer chassis lubes, but why/how are new suspension fittings so
> "maintenance-free", that greasing the under-pinnings are almost
> un-heard-of, now-a-days?
> ...........Then, there's the MAJOR tune up,
> (alternnating w/a 'minor' tune-up), every 10,000 mile's
> Neil Vedder
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