Off-road Atlas LogoOff-road Atlas Logo
  • Behind The Wheel
  • How-To
  • News
  • Stories

How to Service and Adjust SuperATV Ball Joints

By Megan Randall | How-To on September 3, 2020
3M READ
Share
1

Length: 5:07
Created: September 3, 2020

Transcript

[0:00] What’s up guys? Today we’re going to talk a little bit about our heavy-duty ball joints. We’ll show you how to check to see when they’re starting to wear, and how to adjust them to get them tightened back up.

We’ll grab hold of this tire. When we do that, you guys can probably hear that noise. That’s what we’d hear while going down the trail, every time we hit a bump, a rock, or an obstacle.

Remove Wheels and Tires

Let’s remove our tires so we can gain access to our ball joint.

[0:47] Now we have our wheel and tire removed. As you can see, this is our upper ball joint and this is the one that was very loose. Right there is a little pin. That pin is keeping the ball joint from spinning.

Right around this edge is a retaining clip. We have to remove this clip. I like to take a pick and a screwdriver. Slide it in here just like this and separate the clip apart.

Once you’ve removed the clip, set it aside.

[1:26] Then there’s this pin we were talking about. You want to get a pick or something where you can push it out. We’ve got ours pushed out.

Clean the Ball Joint

Instead of just tightening this ball joint down, we’re going to remove the top cap here. One reason is, we’re going to clean it out.

Another reason, we’re going to lubricate it. We’ll just put some grease down in there—that’s perfectly acceptable to do that.

[1:51] We’ll remove this. As you can see, these were definitely starting to get worn out. It’s definitely time to get them cleaned up, so we’re going to do that. We’ll get a rag and wipe out all this old grease. Wipe out this socket here. Get in there and get it good adn clean.

All the grease lines here, where the grease is flowing to the actual ball on the ball joint—make sure you get those good and clean as well.

Add New Grease to the Ball Joint

[2:32] Now we’ll come over to the actual ball joint and wipe it out as well. Obviously you won’t get every last bit of grease out. We’re just trying to get the majority it—whatever we can get with our rag here—so we can put new good grease in there.

Then we’ll take our grease gun. Just put two or three pumps right down in there, just like that. Now we’ve got some fresh grease.

Let’s take a cap. I’ll start threading that right back down in there. Once we get to the point where it starts to get tight, we’ll try to tighten it just a little bit more.

It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to get it much tighter than that, so we’ll have to rotate it back one turn, to this point right here, so we can get our pin back in.

[3:51] Once we’ve adjusted our ball joint to where it makes contact and it’s tight, we’ll reinstall our retaining pin. Just use a flat-head screwdriver. It’s easy enough.

We’ll take the retaining clip and install it. Make sure it’s in the groove and the opening isnt’ lined up with the pin.

Check Other Ball Joints

Now, if you have any other ball joints that are loose or anything like that, just go through and repeat the same process.

[4:27] We have our tire bolted back on. As you can see, I’m picking up on it even harder than I was last time and there is no movement in this upper ball joint. There’s no clicking anymore, no clanking.

And that’s literally how simple it is! That’s a 10 minute job to clean your ball joint out and get it greased up. Then it’s ready to go again, just like brand new.

We have the 4340, the threaded, and then our 300M ball joint—all adjustable. You can do that to each of those ball joints. You wear them out, you adjust them, and then you’re ready to get back on the trail!

RELATED CONTENT: ball joints10 machine maintenance53
Share
1

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *



Related

  • A Crash Course in UTV and ATV Suspension

    Behind The Wheel | 8 MIN READ
  • How to Install a 4500 Lb. Black Ops Winch on a Polaris RZR

    How-To | 12 MIN READ
  • How to Install a Heavy-Duty Carrier Bearing on a Polaris Ranger Crew

    How-To | 11 MIN READ
  • How to Install a 4500 Lb. Black Ops Winch and Winch Mount on a Honda Talon

    How-To | 12 MIN READ
  • How to Install a 6" GDP Portal Gear Lift on a Can-Am Defender

    How-To | 17 MIN READ
  • How Long Do RZR Ball Joints Last?

    Behind The Wheel | 4 MIN READ
  • How to Install a 4" GDP Portal Gear Lift on a Polaris RZR PRO XP

    How-To | 13 MIN READ
  • How to Install a Rev1 Clutch Kit on a Polaris RZR XP 1000

    How-To | 9 MIN READ
  • How to Install a High Gear Kit and Clutch Kit on a Polaris RZR XP Turbo

    How-To | 18 MIN READ
Copyright © 2021 SuperATV. All rights reserved.
SHOP NOW