Help with greasing front 4WD driveshaft

@shifty` you have way too much time lol.

 

Oh man, we are really beating this grease gun tip dead horse.

Standard length fits everything fine P/N

$33 GC81011 LockNLube Grease Gun Coupler locks onto Zerk fittings. Grease goes in, not on the machine. World's best-selling original locking grease coupler. Rated 10000 PSI. Long-lasting rebuildable tool.

GC81011. Extendo version would be okay too.

I park in neutral and rotate the shaft as needed, but my part of Texas is so flat you can stand on a dime and watch your dog run away for three days. Use caution and engage the brain.

 

Front driveshaft spins freely as-is when 4WD is disengaged, so nothing special required. I have yet to need to reposition the rear driveshaft, guess I'm just lucky? Or flexible?

VV gray moly is 2.5% moly concentration which is fine for OEM greasing. Palladium 2 is 3% Moly, which is what my SPC UBJ call for. So I bailed on the VV and switched to Palladium so I can use one tube for suspension and drivetrain. YMMV. I realize not everyone wants SPC uppers, and if they were smart, they'd probably get JBA instead, which will work for 99% of people. But I don't know what JBA calls for on grease/moly content, so ...

Tell me about it.

 

All right I got back under the truck and found that zerk I had missed originally. I also re-greased all of the original grease points I had done the first time because I think I under-greased them the first time based on what you guys told me. I redid them all until I had clean grease coming out. Usually took about 10 pumps each. I went through a few towels wiping the grease up. Grease everywhere. The grease that was in there was this very bright green grease. Actually looked pretty clean though. No telling how old.

I did the slip yoke too, following the directions listed here. I didn't break the record, but I think I got about 40 pumps in there.

Instead of jacking the truck and chocking the wheels, you can just move it forward or backwards about a foot or so. When I first got under, the zerks were all facing away from me. I moved it forward about a foot, and they were dead center. They are all in a line conveniently. Faster than jacking the truck and safer.

Since I already had the grease out and had made a big mess, I decided to clean my battery terminals and grease those. Backed the truck out of the garage and took some water mixed with baking soda, and cleaned them up. Made a big mess. Broke the positive terminal, so had to run out and buy a new one. Moron PO had the bolt in backwards which made it a huge pain to get out, and he also overtightened it and broke the clamp. Discovered that when I loosened it. It always turns into a bigger job. Took the terminals off, cleaned them up really nicely, greased the terminals, and wrenched everything back down.

Going to buy the Lock n Lube gun and coupler recommended here to get the front driveshaft. I tried again and just can't get the current coupler onto those zerks.

Now, on to the skid plate project. Thanks for all the help.

 

I don't have a problem with the clunking driveshaft so I lube the slip-yolk conservatively. Until I see it move a bit. I think it's a rare problem, but I had the grease plug on my Tacoma come out, somewhere along the way. So I could pump all the grease I wanted into that driveshaft, and it just spilled out the giant hole.

With a little googling, no one was completely sure what could cause that, but it happens to some people, and the popular theory was over-filling the slip yolk. Too much pressure, driveshaft can't compress, blows out the plug. I had to deal with that while I was trying to sell the truck, so it was especially annoying. That's the reason I take it easy on that zerk...and don't use the method from this forum. If I start getting a clunk, I'll reassess.

 

This is why I recommend, after pumping several times, to remove the zerk and relieve pressure on the yoke. Yes, it'll shit some grease out. But better out the zerk then it finding another place.

 

Good call! I missed that part.

 

I took a closer look at that fitting on the front driveshaft. Looks like the standard fitting will get on there but you need to rotate the zerk to be parallel to the ATF lines on the rack and you need to squeeze your hands above them to secure it onto the fitting. I can see the advantage of the lock-n-lube coupler to latch on with little effort unless your one of those guys with dainty hands that can squeeze in there and get a good latch onto the fitting without the need for a specialized coupler.

 

Just checked my Lincoln gun. The hose is made in Germany. Gun is made in India.

 

I did the jump on the bumper thing the first two times, but now I just give it 15 pumps or so. Since I had to tap my zerk in, I'm worried I'm gonna strip it out if I take it in and out too much.

 

I'm with you. I don't want to tempt fate and try to unscrew it. Too much rust as it is for me.

 

Hose will last forever. Gun ... not sure which is worse, India or mainland China

It's kinda depressing, the state of manufacturing these days, but I digress. Thankfully there's still a plethora of good quality pre-millenial tools on the market, and they can be had for (many times) cheaper than modern pricing.

 

Yeah I'm just gonna grab this LnL gun and coupler combo. It made the gun only about $30-35 which is a deal.

 

Oh and RE: Zerks... You're not likely to damage the threads in the cast part. And if you were to dick up the zerk itself, you can always buy a new one to screw in its place. I don't have the threading info handy, but someone else has absolutely posted it on here in the past. It's an unusual size compared to the domestic trucks of the world.

 

Any idea offhand on the size of the wrench to unscrew it?

 

I just checked on the truck, 7mm socket fit snugly over the slip yoke zerk, and I was able to spin it off with firm grip, i.e. they DO NOT require a lot of torquing down when tightening.