IFS maintenance

[scentralpirate]

Well I finally got off my lazy butt and downloaded a bunch of images from the camera of when I played hookie from work and did some fall maintance on the durango ... rotated the tires, went after my squeaky front brake caliper, finished hooking up my tranny cooler, and greasing all the ball joints and steering linkage.

It was quite a productive day to say the least.

Being how there was that little issue chrysler had with a few of its dakotas and durangos *cough -recall- cough* :slap: I kinda wanted to do a little how to / where is it write up on maintaining your IFS

Personally I usally grease up the ball joints and such every time I go to change out my oil/oil filter every 3-4,000 miles. Cleaning the grease zerks and letting them have 3-4 good squirts of grease while I'm waiting for oil to drain or whatnot.

Then in the fall before winter hits I grease the hell out of them in order to 'push out' any dirt that may have gotten under the boot(s) so I can skip greasing them once the ground has a sheet of ice on it :)

anyway onto some pics:

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2262000-2262999/2262753_8_full.jpg
wheels off and properly supported on jacks stands (note the upper ball joint)
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2262000-2262999/2262753_16_full.jpg
lower ball joint and tie rod end ( drivers side)
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2262000-2262999/2262753_10_full.jpg
might as well grease this lonely soul on the front driveshaft while your under there http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2262000-2262999/2262753_11_full.jpg
scrub em good. clean the zerks good so you are not pushing any dirt ito the ball joints http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2262000-2262999/2262753_12_full.jpg
idler arm in the foreground (passenger side) pitman arm is drivers side http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2262000-2262999/2262753_13_full.jpg
mini grease gun from napa is just fine costs about 15 bucks or so.

total time involved minus pulling the tires is about 15 whole minutes unless you forget which side of the truck you set your beer on and have to stop to find it or get another one :mullet:

/ As a side not you do not have to remove the front tires in order to grease any of ball joints, but it makes it alot easier to clean them.

hope this helps some.

[RunninDual00]

Good write -up!

[Yellow318]

Yeah what he said....

[Rob454]

At least you HAVE greasable joints. My truck has none
Rob

[Mopar inc.]

At least you HAVE greasable joints. My truck has none
Rob
Then use a grease needle on your grease gun and lube them that way.
:biggthump

[Rob454]

Then use a grease needle on your grease gun and lube them that way.
:biggthump


LOL thats what I do. The tough part is finding the old needle hole
Rob

[lilguido1]

LOL thats what I do. The tough part is finding the old needle hole
Rob

I hate when it's hard to find an old hole...w/o fur


**c'mon, someone had to say it**

[howelldurango]

Thanks for the write up. What kind of grease do you use?

[scentralpirate]

Thanks for the write up. What kind of grease do you use?

I look for marine grade grease and use it (it seems to hold up against water a bit better than other types) when I can find some, otherwise slection is somewhat limited with the mini grease gun.

Lithium based grease is perfectly fine for the most part which I use more often than not.