I will be replacing the center link and idler arm on my 63 Starfire due to wear in the original parts. I have bought replacement parts but like the originals they have "permanently lubricated" joint ends with no grease fittings. The old joke back in the 60s when they started doing this was that "Permanent" meant until they wore out which was usually not very many miles. I have been thinking about drilling the sheetmetal backs of these joints and adding grease fittings but I wanted to see if anyone on the forum had already tried this. If so what was involved and how did it turn out? Any help appreciated as always.

 

I don't know how thick those caps are, but you can easily put them into thicker metal in the body of the joint. The only issue is making sure the hole penetrates into the guts. The grease fittings are self tapping.

 

As mentioned you can probably add the fittings if you can choose the optimum spot to drill. Try not to damage the internals and try to keep the shavings outside. So far, I've never had to replace a part that's been greased regularly. But I usually have to ask about the grease fitting before purchase. Moog parts seem to be better than most as far as coming with fittings. U-joints come both ways but the fittings have made a big difference for me. I have an old Rambler that came with all the parts drilled and tapped and fitted with plugs. All I had to do was replace the plugs with fittings. That was easy. All the original (greased) parts are still on it.