Outer tie rod end, grease ooze?

[hour]

Hey all,

Did my drivers side lower ball joint this morning, using a large rented pitman puller to gently separate the outer tie rod instead of pickle forking it to death. OTRE looked to be in great shape / done recently, but as soon as I separated it I noticed it was oozing some grease.

Is this normal, or did I still damage it trying to do it the gentle way?

Much thanks, doing the drivers side tomorrow and really hope I don't end up with having to redo this next week to replace those as well, especially since they were the newest looking part on the entire vehicle. Think receipt was in glove box from previous owner having this done actually.

 

[hour]

Er, borrowing spongerx's pics.

This is the method I used:

And my resulting grease was a little more significant than this:

Anyone had any luck just replacing the dust cap/boot/whatever it is pictured here?

 

[Jc12]

are you able to re-lube through a grease zerk? My moog ones have the capability and you could clean it up, shoot some grease in it and monitor..

 

[hour]

Nah, no zerk. Just looking at the design, it would appear as if pushing on the little boot thing would make grease come out even if it were brand new, but I guess that's not the case. Totally crappy that I went the gentle route and it still ruptured.

After checking the LBJ I pulled yesterday, it didn't seem to have any problems. I guess peace of mind is important, but I feel like I just blew a bunch of money on two OEM lbjs only to ruin my outer tie rod as well. Hopefully the passenger side won't rupture, or the 4runner will be sitting for a while. 3 days away from pay day and can't even afford two autozone replacements No way in hell am I going to go OEM for these too.