Zone UCA Ball joint squeaking… AGAIN

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healthyrx

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I have had my lift with eibach front and rear springs/shocks set to 3.5” with zone UCAs that were installed at the same time on since early January.
Last Friday my driver side upper ball joint started squeaking and got worse through the weekend until I figured out what the squeak was and greased it with about 15 pumps of Lucas oil green grease. Problem solved and the noise went away.
It came back this morning after about 150 miles of driving since I put the grease in.. and it looks like the grease zerk pushed all/most of the grease out… I know this because I wipe all excess grease off zerks when I am finished greasing them so that I don’t get grease all over the place.

This is a photo of the UCA this morning. There was no grease on the top of the UCA Sunday afternoon after I had finished greasing the UCA so it looks like all of this grease was pushed backwards out of the zerk over the course of the week hence why my ball joint is making noise again…
What is the solution to this besides greasing the UCA on a weekly basis?
Is it new ball joints from zone or is there a possible manufactured defect meaning id need a new UCA?
5992EE63-BA09-4B6F-9496-4D5FC8C65D43.jpeg
 

crazykid1994

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Mine used to push grease out if I over greased them. I used green heavy duty trailer grease and had no issues with squeaking though. Had around 3 years/25,000 miles on mine before switching to something with better flexibility. I would contact zone and mention it to them though and tell them it’s squeaking even after greasing. I’m guessing though that your grease zerk may be faulty if it’s not holding grease in. Maybe try ordering a grease zerk. Warning though it’s not a standard zerk. It’s long. You’ll need to pull it and measure it.
 
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healthyrx

healthyrx

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Mine used to push grease out if I over greased them. I used green heavy duty trailer grease and had no issues with squeaking though. Had around 3 years/25,000 miles on mine before switching to something with better flexibility. I would contact zone and mention it to them though and tell them it’s squeaking even after greasing. I’m guessing though that your grease zerk may be faulty if it’s not holding grease in. Maybe try ordering a grease zerk. Warning though it’s not a standard zerk. It’s long. You’ll need to pull it and measure it.
Nothing special with replacing the grease zerk in the UCAs right? Just unscrew it and screw it back in? UCA can stay on the truck and tire can stay on the ground I presume?

Edit: Side note, how have you been liking the JBA UCAs so far compared to the Zones? Since my alignment on the truck still isn't quite 100% im thinking I may just say F it and order the JBAs since I loved them on my old 4runner and sell these zones for a discounted price
 

crazykid1994

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Nothing special with replacing the grease zerk in the UCAs right? Just unscrew it and screw it back in? UCA can stay on the truck and tire can stay on the ground I presume?

Edit: Side note, how have you been liking the JBA UCAs so far compared to the Zones? Since my alignment on the truck still isn't quite 100% im thinking I may just say F it and order the JBAs since I loved them on my old 4runner and sell these zones for a discounted price
Yes. Easy. No need to remove anything to change the zerk. Definitely loving the JBAs though. The free rotation has been nice from the poly bushings so I’m not worried about binding the rubber when articulating. And it definitely aligned a lot nicer. The cam bolts are dang near center. Wish I had gone this route or icons originally as now I’m starting to push the truck harder and I’m finding it’s limitations pretty easily. Then again I am on bilstein 5100s too so not exactly a lot to expect out of them for harder off-roading.
 
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healthyrx

healthyrx

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I may end up going the JBA route if replacing the grease zerk doesn't fix the issue.. might have to spring for some Icon 2.5 coilovers or fox 2.0s at the same time
 

crazykid1994

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I may end up going the JBA route if replacing the grease zerk doesn't fix the issue.. might have to spring for some Icon 2.5 coilovers or fox 2.0s at the same time
I wanted to go fox 2.5 dsc but can’t convince myself that the cost is worth it currently so 6112 is the top of my list for now
 
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healthyrx

healthyrx

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I wanted to go fox 2.5 dsc but can’t convince myself that the cost is worth it currently so 6112 is the top of my list for now
My ego would love the fox or king 2.5s but realistically I don’t do that kind of off-roading I’ll most likely end up going a mild overlanding direction for some nice camping spots with an RTT so it’d be better to use the money saved With icon 2.5s or fox 2.0s for a nicer RTT
 
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healthyrx

healthyrx

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I stopped at autozone on my way home to grab a cheap grease gun and some green grease so I didn’t have to listen to this god awful noise the whole drive. Added grease in the autozone parking lot and drove 14 miles home.
This is the amount of grease that came back out of thr UCA by the time I got home and it was making noise againC427DADC-98D1-4D22-BAFF-3AFF55DABB76.jpeg
 

Quick_Shifter

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I stopped at autozone on my way home to grab a cheap grease gun and some green grease so I didn’t have to listen to this god awful noise the whole drive. Added grease in the autozone parking lot and drove 14 miles home.
This is the amount of grease that came back out of thr UCA by the time I got home and it was making noise againView attachment 486232
Zone will warranty those ball joints send them an email. They are still covered if memory serves its 1 year
 
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healthyrx

healthyrx

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Was down at my barn, I pulled the zerk out, hit it with brake cleaner, propane torch, brake cleaner then air from my compressor, reinstalled the zerk, added some grease and drove 100 feet from the barn to my house and cranked the steering wheel full left and full right 4 times in that time span. This is the amount of grease that came right out of the top of the zerk where the 1 way valve is so I guess it’s the zerk that’s shot
Does anybody know what size the zerk is or will I need to contact zone for that? DA3479FC-868F-4DB1-BE5C-FEE78DFD0E19.jpeg
 

G-Ride990

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Just by looking at it I am guessing it's 1/16-27npt but I will pull one of mine off this weekend and measure it. I need to grease mine anyways.

I checked their website and didn't see any info on the fitting size.

Here's a link to the rebuild kit

And here's a link to the rebuild kit install. Sadly no info on zerk size.
 
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healthyrx

healthyrx

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Found part 2 of the problem… I guess I’m replacing the whole ball joint..
A031A8D6-30A2-4589-9CF4-2140A42774F1.jpeg
 

hemihustlin

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what is the grease interval recommend by the manufacturer?
 

G-Ride990

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I think there was definitely grease in it.
Looks like the boot was full right? Haven't had any squeaking with mine and I have not been the most diligent with greasing them. Weird one for sure
 

Quick_Shifter

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Was down at my barn, I pulled the zerk out, hit it with brake cleaner, propane torch, brake cleaner then air from my compressor, reinstalled the zerk, added some grease and drove 100 feet from the barn to my house and cranked the steering wheel full left and full right 4 times in that time span. This is the amount of grease that came right out of the top of the zerk where the 1 way valve is so I guess it’s the zerk that’s shot
Does anybody know what size the zerk is or will I need to contact zone for that? View attachment 486249
The zerk fitting is not a standard size because it’s about an inch long (not found in your local parts store)
Email zone they cover all parts for the first year.
 
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healthyrx

healthyrx

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Looks like the boot was full right? Haven't had any squeaking with mine and I have not been the most diligent with greasing them. Weird one for sure
Either it’s a freak accident or I guess maybe the shop that installed my lift kit or one of the shops I went to for an alignment may have damaged it a little bit
I’ve only put 5k miles on the truck since I bought it and the lift with UCAs probably barely has 3k miles
 

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