Can people who have done this upgrade share their feelings?  My truck needs tie rods, and if I am going to go 4th gen now is the time.  

8 hours ago, Bullet said:

Got any advice on it for me? 

I think we can create a whole new topic on this. Pros cons where is the best place to drill and tap, etc. 

I did it because I felt like I should have them, especially if they last long enough grease will start to solidify and squeezing an extra shot in there would freshen things up. But like @AH64ID said overdoing it might ruin it. Same goes for U-joints, the original sealed ones seem to last the longest, but then again was it just better made. I do agree that sealed units have better seals, I know if you take a cap off a sealed U-joint vs non you can see a huge difference of how tight the seals are on a sealed unit and they are double lip, I can't speak for tie rod seals as I've never really looked at them that hard. To me it looks like a regular rubber boot and if you take it off there would be a ball-and-socket in there that could use some grease.

Now Where to drill and tap that's a good question, I did it right in a center off the flap metal cap. All of them drilled easy aside from one, it was some sort of hardened metal could be stainless, but eventually I drilled through it. I didn't worry too much about metal shavings, it seemed that it all came out as I was grilling. Plus when you get through there is grease inside and it gets the drill bit full of it and the rest of shavings stick to it. It seems like there was a little gap between the metal cap and the ball socket, which makes me believe that the ball didn't directly ride on the surface where I drilled the hole. 

I have not added any grease to it yet as it was brand new when I did it and it have plenty of it inside. I actually thought about doing this job later down the road after I get some mileage on it, but decided to do it right away since it wasn't installed on the truck. I'm not planning on greasing at anytime soon, so it kind of defeats the purpose of doing it. I've always did things the odd way anyway, so to each their own.

You can leave it alone for a few years and do it at some point later. I'd say if you were constantly going in deep water then it would be beneficial to service them after each use. I did that on my off road trucks and every time I could squeeze a little bit of water from most of the joints and they were all brand new too. 

My oe sealed TRE's lasted 250k before one was going bad. I am still running all the factory sealed u joints except on the front axlea. One failed so I replaced both. They have grease zerks but I have not added any yet. That was about 2.5 years ago.

 

I did seek out and manged to find 3 new old stock u joints for the rear drive shaft for future use. One has to give sooner or later. For me the sealed is the way to go. But are they as good as they used to be, your guess is as good as mine.

 

I should add that I replaced all the front end with Moog non sealed parts and they are approaching 250k. I sure dont grease them that much and the seem ok still. This includes the ball joints.

Tie rods ends for me last 350k miles with the factory OEM stuff. Ball joints are still going after 200k miles something I bought on RockAuto for super cheap.

7 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

I've always did things the odd way anyway, so to each their own.

Right on brother...that's how I roll too!  Thank you for your wisdom on the subject.

 

I'll keep thinking about it...not sure it's necessary as long as the original seal holds.  Thanks again! 

I got my truck at 150k . All ujoints shot except inside the dana 60 I've never done thise yet. Been thinking about doing them because I'll have to listen to one clatter limping one day. 

 

I have done front driveline a total of 3 times now to get to 350k truck isnt ran in 4wd very often but has had quite  few adventures pulling the horses through slop I was unsure of.  Rooster throwing on the turbo for miles hanging in the  borrow ditch kinda adventures. With the please dont stop prayer rolling in my head.

 

Rear drive line only ounce