Lower Ball Joints

Got a '99 Ranger 4.0L and for those who own a similar type truck, the lower ball joints are not equipped with a "zirk" fitting, thus it cannot be relubricated.

O.K. After inspection I noticed that the rubber boots were cracked all the way around but there seemed to have some grease inside. The "roadability" seemed OK (no losseness or vibration, etc). I can add some bearing grease and the rubber boots seemed good enough to hold the grease but it cannot be pressure fed. Any comments on this?

My guess is if you can get grease in them dirt will work its way into them also.

I'm going to try to pump some grease into it. The boot is cracked all the way around as opposed to being deteriorated so if any, not much dirt can get in. also I can seal the crack with some sort of liquid rubber.

If you have a needle for your grease gun that would'nt leave much of a place for dirt to get in. I wonder if like a black silicone sealant would work on rubber seal?

Took my grease gun and removed the zirk fitting adapter. I fashioned a device made up of brass cuopling and compression fittings. I used a short lenght of 1/8" Cu tubing. Worked out real good. Why in the hell did Ford decide to do away with the standard zirk fittings. It would've been much simpler using the grease gun.