Grease Into Those Boot/Dust Seals - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

BrierS · #1 07-29-2008, 07:31 PM

In a past thread, I read about someone using a syringe with heated grease to inject into the boots or dust seals. Another thing I find works good is a Deluxe Cajun Injector ( www.brucefoods.com ). The injection needle has a sharp piercing point and the marinade, or grease in this case, ejects from an elongated slot in the side of the substantial needle. As you can tell, this unit is constructed to inject marinade into meat so it handles these greasing jobs just great.

Food for thought.
Steve

#2 07-29-2008, 07:32 PM

Piercing the boot with anything, even a small needle, is a very bad idea. It makes a weak spot that will make it tear sooner.

BrierS · #3 07-29-2008, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForcedInduction

Piercing the boot with anything, even a small needle, is a very bad idea. It makes a weak spot that will make it tear sooner.

I won't debate the point yet the original topic dealt with buying time; heating grease until it could be injected with a more typical syringe. This alternative eliminates having to heat the grease.

Lincoln manufactured and sold (I believe I sent one to one of our moderators for his use a few years ago) an attachment that, among other things, accomplished the same job. These were used numerous times, right or wrong, with no signs of accelerating the inevitable. In fact, I believe they did what was intended; buying more time. I am certain that in a perfect, technical world your opinion is spot-on. In my world, when people brought their vehicles for repairs and had no money yet would barter for needed repairs, these methods proved useful for years. As did our pile of junk exhaust pieces, coat hangers, Borax and some other low cost items. Though my memory may be failing me at my age, I do not recall ever seeing the type of disintegration you imply. Of course the next stop/owner for many of those vehicles was a local salvage yard. The owners never accused me of aiding and abetting the salvage yards...

babymog · #4 07-29-2008, 07:55 PM

I've done this many times over the past couple of decades, piercing in a low-stress area helps, and I've never had a failure of a boot other than severely cracked areas. My '85 quattro is still running all ten original CV joint boots, after 22 years and 250,000miles, I've owned it the whole time, and they've been pierced ten years ago to add lube.

The easiest method is to just buy the needle with a zirc on its base, pop it in your grease gun and go.

Most CV joint boots are blow-molded, which tends to be thicker in some areas than others, also you'll notice that they flex more in some areas than others, pierce in a thick area where it doesn't flex much. I used to put a little silicone sealer over the hole, stopped doing that as I don't think it matters, no leaks.

Works for other booted joints also such as ball-joints on vehicles with no zirc fittings that are out-living their life expectancy.

Now if I could figure out a way to lube sealed wheel bearings.