G.A.H

Mine are still in good shape and i do want them to sag a little so my jeep is level, i think with a matching spare tire it will level out

TheDirtman

I am sure RK will have some bullshit excuse for the poor quality of the finish on the ball. They sent me some to test out when they first came out with that joint. I made a comment to them that the ball was rough, not as rough as yours, and they said I was likely given a reject and the ball should be smooth. I have done installs of their lifts and quality is poor, instructions are incomplete, and their website was a bad resource full of conflicting information. Their coil over bypass kit was one of the worst riding kits I have ever been in. They blamed it on the shock oil being too cold. I have not done an install of their stuff since. They say they have improved their finish and packaging but I can't verify that.
I would bet you would get one of these too answers about the rough joints. "We improved the design of your joints by putting those small grooves into the ball to increase lubrication of the races" or "We had a small number of joints from a third party slip past quality control and give us a call and we will send you out a new set"

As far as greasing those joints you are to use a light weight grease that RK sells and only put 1-2 pumps into it. You still have life in your joints so I would run them till they fail then replace them with something else as was suggested above.

G.A.H

One thing i should have done is listening to your advice when i first joined this forum and asked about the 4.5 xfactor lift and you recommended not buying it but the way you said it i felt like you just hated the company and just saying bad things i don't know what to say. the lift is a headache nothing but problems i will do my best in maintaining everything but the problem is one of the joint is starting to have play in it not that i mean rotate easily but like side to side and when i removed the other joints to check them they were loose you can rotate them easily but still tight but when rotating the joint it sounds like sanding that's why i was concerned about the rough finish and the funny thing you just said what ever you show them that's fine that's how it's supposed to be 😂😂 do you think if a take the balls out and sand them down to remove all the machining marks would i have a problem in fitment??

TheDirtman

If you just polish the ball I would think you would be fine since the joint is designed to be able to tighten as they wear. As long as the inner race is still intact that is since they are rather thin.
Personally I think this is a poorly designed joint that won't last. RK has had many issues with their joints in the past and this redesign, I feel, was rushed and was basically stealing a design that Ballistic Fabrication uses and trying to make it work in a narrow housing to get massive amounts of misalignment that you don't need on a jeep. Because of this they have issues similar to that of a heim joint that is hard to lubricate and wears faster then something like the Ballistic joint or a johnny joint.

G.A.H

The races are coming apart you can see in these pictures and the funny thing i only have 3 to 4k miles of HIGHWAY use on this kit

resharp001

GAH - hope you don't mind, I've uploaded your videos to YouTube for others to see the movement you have in that one joint -

Good joint -

Joint OP is questioning - (not sure why this video isn't embedding, click the link)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqSm...ature=youtu.be

G.A.H

No problem at all thankyou

TheDirtman

Those grooves should act like a cheese grater on the bearing race. They are not too active on the forums anymore but their facebook and instagram will get responses. Just throw a fit and show the photos and they will eventually send you some new joints so you will go away. They will tell you that you over greased them or you tightened them too much or you did not tighten them enough.They typically start with "it is your fault" instead of what their warrantee states on the website.

G.A.H

I did send them the video by email and they said thats normal i will also show you the trackbar joint how much play it has and they also said thats normal

https://youtu.be/XJfZiOK9fbY

karls10jk

You need more exposure sir. As noted- Facebook or Instagram would be a good way to post it and have high visibility to where they have to address the issue because they've got an audience watching. It's sad it's got to be that way to get some response, but they aren't listening to you now.