hi all,

I must have ripped the rubber boot of new ball joint during install, after all the work I realized few weeks after that boot was cracked and grease was seeping off.

are there any remediation options or do I have to replace the whole thing again?

 

You will likely have to reinstall but once you get everything apart, you can probably just put a new boot on the ball that is installed currently.

 

100% feel that pain. I ended up reinstalling a replacement. Not fun, but it's probably the last time you'll have to put new ball joints in so might as well do it right. Big time sucks though, sorry mate :/

 

Or, now that it's in, leave it alone. It will wear out faster with a torn boot as dirt will get in, but you will probably get years out of it.

 

Depending on how big the terror is you might be able to fix it with some RTV silicone, if you attempt that fix I recommend that you clean the outside of the boot extremely thoroughly with acetone, apply the Permatex high torque RTV cement to the outside liberally creating a thick layer and then let it cure at least 24 hours before you use the vehicle. You may not be able to apply as much grease internal pressure as you would with a boot that was not torn. All that said you can buy ball joint boot kits only and not have to replace the entire boot. I did that on the recent 50,000 mile disco I sold, at 50,000 miles the ball joints weren't worn out but the boots had disintegrated just from their pure age.

 

Thanks for the feedback all, I was afraid of the answer but I kind of expected no shortcut as the boot is really torn apart. Removing knuckle and just replacing the boot is a great way to mitigate the nightmare of removing the BJ with press. Thanks for that.

 

have you tried universal ball joint boots in Amazon, easier than replacing the compltes ball joint