Mom took the truck out for a simple grocery run a few days ago. At one point, the passenger side front u-joint went kablooey. The ejected cap in question was recovered and it was rather apparent that the rusted mess in question had been running with no grease for some time.
This marks the third time that I have had a sudden, complete failure of a Precision brand u-joint over the last 4 years. I do know well that my steering is far from perfect, so I certainly can't say for certain that part quality is entirely to blame.
That said, I have decided that I have had enough. I ordered a Red Head steering box, which are supposed to be pretty awesome, and will have it installed along with basically every component in the steering that can be replaced. There is no way these trucks went through the front u-joints this rapidly when new, so I'm going to start the **** over from new. I simply cannot carry on with u-joints maybe-maybe-not blowing up after a year or two of use.