Drive Train Greasing

[UTEP]

Hi All,

I was attempting to grease the drive trian today before the cheap grease gun broke. I got pretty far along.

Found the zerks and cleaned them up nicely using the proper grease. Havine never maintained a 4x4 I never had a vehicle with the sliding shaft that one of the zerks greases.

Seems I found a thread about not injecting too much grease as this will hydrolically bind the shaft and not allow it to move. Of course I can not find that thread any where....nor any real mention of how much you're supposed to grease it. I did so until old grease cleared out. I did this on the all the zerk fittings.

I was careful not to use a lot of pressure and took a while to accomplish this.

Am I good to go or have I over or under done anything?

Thanks,

Warren

 

[nobb]

I normally grease my driveshaft every oil change. The sliding yokes I only give 2 pumps of grease. You definitely dont want to force too much grease in there at once, certainly not to the point where you see grease starting to spew out because that means you've over greased. Over time, the driveshaft will naturally slowly force out excess grease.

If you give the sliding yoke too much grease at once, you will physically see the driveshaft hydraulically moving a bit, putting strain on the differential and transfer case.

The other fittings, such as the U-joints I will grease until I see grease coming out, not a problem.

 

[UTEP]

Yikes!

OK I saw the yokes moving just a little. No grease coming out I can recall. I was also fighting with a cheap grease gun so distracted from moment to moment.

Let's suppose I have injected too much grease....should I remove the zerks and let a little excess pressure off the system...perhaps enough to relieve the strain?


Other ideas?

Dang it! I knew I read this somewhere but I got confused and just read "grease till it comes out". At least in the back of my mind I held off a little.

Thanks,

Warren

 

[1blink]

You will find a variety of answers to this question. The yoke moved a little, I would say that's exactly enough grease. I usually give the slip yokes 5 or 6 squeezes.
http://www.4runners.org/writeups/zerk/index.html

 

[knothead]

There is one zerk that I cant get to on the double u-joint on the front of the rear drive shaft. The head of the grease gun is to big. Is there a narrower one that I can get in there?

 

[UTEP]

There is one zerk that I cant get to on the double u-joint on the front of the rear drive shaft. The head of the grease gun is to big. Is there a narrower one that I can get in there?

Hmmm

The junky grease gun I got from Autozone seemed to fit in there ok. Did not appear smaller in any way. I used the $5 hose attachment.


HTH

Warren

 

[UTEP]

Hi,

Well I drove a few miles this morning, through all the gears and came home and put a sharp steel scribe on the ball of the zerk. The rear released about 1-1.5 table spoon of grease rather quickly, the front about half that oozed out.

Drove all day and tried again and almost none out the the front and .25-.50 slowly oozed out of the rear.

I tried to get the zerks off but they just about stripped. Couldn't find a 6 point wrench or socket on hand but will do that soon.

This almost sounds like a good way to thoroughly grease the shaft. Other wise it's just a guessing game. I'm unsure of the construction and imagine there is some sort of seal so maybe not the best idea to put it under too much pressure but my front did express a bit of rather thick black grease along the shaft. Obviously not a regularly maintained part of this 4R.

I have looked at a number of used 4R's recently and took not of the shafts. All seemed to have smeared grease along them. SHould they have some easy play in them? Should I easily be able to move them in or out? When doing the rear I was able to get a grip on it and force a little more out.

Thanks,

Warren