Driveshaft Greased backwards...

[atalarico]

I know this has been covered a lot, but I have a question about whether or not I need to take action or just do it right next time.

The first few times I greased my driveshaft(s?) about 5 years ago, I did it backwards. I put moly where the lithium is supposed to go and vise versa. After doing that a few times, and realizing it after the fact, I finally just drew up a handy little "Hey idiot, put the moly here and the lithium here" diagram that I kept with my grease gun. Problem solved.

Well, I lost the diagram, and greased everything up based on the 4runners.org write-up and surprise surprise, I did it backwards again. I only did about 3 pumps in each zerk, but is it worth it to go through and pull the zerks off and drain what I can and fill it right? I learned that was possible when I was changing my transfer case's front driveshaft seal thing and one of the steps is pulling the front drive shaft off.

If you had to pick any of the zerks to drain and re-do, which would they be?

I'm thinking of just switching to straight MP to avoid doing this in the future, and I only have one grease gun, so it's a royal pain anyway.

 

[cashmoney]

I run Lucas red and tacky in anything that requires grease. 15 years and never a single failure of any part anywhere. *knock on wood* Dad runs lithium grease in anything that needs grease on the farm. Again, no failures after years of use and abuse. It's just grease. Don't over think it. I've never understood any logical reason why they put two different types of grease in the same part to begin with.

 

[Nelsonmd]

Don't worry about it. Use the same in all of them. Either Moly or regular is fine as long as you keep it greased.

 

[kolelt]

As stated above. Just use grease. It doesn't matter. It's hard to believe I know, but believe it.

 

[JayRolla]

I just use whats in my grease gun which is all the same. Never had an issue.

 

[gamefreakgc]

Yup, moly every time for me. It's just grease, I don't bother with switching back and forth for the same reason you encountered.

 

[TheDurk]

I can't believe you guys are so frivolous about this. I used Moly exclusively for the first ten years. Then I switched to MPLG and I'm halfway through the second ten. Any other approach is clearly wrong and will lead to your driveshaft catching fire and melting into metallic goop.

 

[Unner]

The fact that you're even putting grease in those zerks shows you are putting more effort into that truck than anyone else would have. It'll be fine.

 

[UnderFire]

This stuff right here is the best grease money can buy hands down. Everything here with a zerk gets filled up with it.

Amazon.com: Bigfoot Grease: Sleeve 10/14oz Tubes: Automotive

 

[atalarico]

I can't believe you guys are so frivolous about this. I used Moly exclusively for the first ten years. Then I switched to MPLG and I'm halfway through the second ten. Any other approach is clearly wrong and will lead to your driveshaft catching fire and melting into metallic goop.

Frivolous as in we're being stingy? I just get nervous any time I do something to my truck wrong from write-ups or manuals. I've seen the debates about whether or not it's necessary to use two different types of grease, so I'm not going down that road.

Sounds like it'll be OK to leave in there. I'll probably just switch to the lithium synth or one of the other ones you guys recommended. Back end is still clunking but I didn't actually fill it up that much, so I'll probably just go back and pump something else in there to at least get rid of the clunk. Sounds like it won't explode if I mix greases either.

Thanks for the help all! Cheers!

 

[KaliKid]

I second the Red n Tacky by Lucas Oil Products. Works great and never had any issues using it for everything.

 

[Nelsonmd]

I can't believe you guys are so frivolous about this. I used Moly exclusively for the first ten years. Then I switched to MPLG and I'm halfway through the second ten. Any other approach is clearly wrong and will lead to your driveshaft catching fire and melting into metallic goop.

Haha! Nice...

This stuff right here is the best grease money can buy hands down. Everything here with a zerk gets filled up with it.

Amazon.com: Bigfoot Grease: Sleeve 10/14oz Tubes: Automotive

Got any data? I know you are just talking casual, but that stuff is not hands down the best. It's probably fine, but it not just "the best hands down"

Frivolous as in we're being stingy? I just get nervous any time I do something to my truck wrong from write-ups or manuals. I've seen the debates about whether or not it's necessary to use two different types of grease, so I'm not going down that road.

Sounds like it'll be OK to leave in there. I'll probably just switch to the lithium synth or one of the other ones you guys recommended. Back end is still clunking but I didn't actually fill it up that much, so I'll probably just go back and pump something else in there to at least get rid of the clunk. Sounds like it won't explode if I mix greases either.

Thanks for the help all! Cheers!

He was being sarcastic. Pretty much all the tube greases you find are lithium base. Both Moly and MP are lithium soap base. They can be mixed freely, over and over again, no problem. Don't worry yabout it for one moment, and don't listen to anyone telling you that there is a "best" grease out there, or that putting moly or MP is going to make it explode or break.

A wise man once said, "better to fill your zerks with buttery flavored Crisco than to not grease it" and that's 100% true. Just grease it. If you don't want to grease it, then put in Moly and it may (I repeat... may) last a bit longer.

 

[atalarico]

Haha! Nice...



Got any data? I know you are just talking casual, but that stuff is not hands down the best. It's probably fine, but it not just "the best hands down"



He was being sarcastic. Pretty much all the tube greases you find are lithium base. Both Moly and MP are lithium soap base. They can be mixed freely, over and over again, no problem. Don't worry yabout it for one moment, and don't listen to anyone telling you that there is a "best" grease out there, or that putting moly or MP is going to make it explode or break.

A wise man once said, "better to fill your zerks with buttery flavored Crisco than to not grease it" and that's 100% true. Just grease it. If you don't want to grease it, then put in Moly and it may (I repeat... may) last a bit longer.

Thank god for voices of reason! Oh, and maybe I'll really go for the gusto and start using Crisco instead! Knowing my luck I'll somehow do it accidentally and then ask a million questions about it on the forum. Har har har.

Also, does Crisco remind anyone else of the 80s?

 

[I_bRAD]

Thank god for voices of reason! Oh, and maybe I'll really go for the gusto and start using Crisco instead! Knowing my luck I'll somehow do it accidentally and then ask a million questions about it on the forum. Har har har.

Also, does Crisco remind anyone else of the 80s?

As long as we're talking voice of reason, what is the clunk? If it's your u-joint what grease to put in is the last of your worries.

I would use lard before I'd use crisco but an interesting thing when you use crisco is the driveshaft slip joint actually contracts rather than extends as it fills up.

 

[UnderFire]

Got any data? I know you are just talking casual, but that stuff is not hands down the best. It's probably fine, but it not just "the best hands down"

It's the only grease that would hold up a whole day in the pins that the blades on a 5 foot wide mower head pivot on. You can really feel the difference between it and the typical red or blue greases once you have got hands-on with it too, it is extremely tacky and thick, made specifically for joints/pins/bushings that see a lot of abuse, we literally use it for everything but bearings and it holds up amazingly.

 

[atalarico]

As long as we're talking voice of reason, what is the clunk? If it's your u-joint what grease to put in is the last of your worries.

I would use lard before I'd use crisco but an interesting thing when you use crisco is the driveshaft slip joint actually contracts rather than extends as it fills up.

Oh, the usual rear-end clunk when you brake hard and then go again. I just haven't greased my driveshafts in a few oil changes, so it was overdue. Clunk got a lot better, but not totally gone. I didn't see the slip joint actually extend much when I put the three measly pumps in, so I need to do a bit more.

I wonder what the lard or crisco would smell like as it gets splattered onto my exhaust manifold. Probably damn good...

 

[diverscale]

Always use moly grease, as the moly additive will act as a lubricant, even if your normal grease runs out, or is displaced by shop or heavy impacts, and protect the joint as a safety.

To simplify things, I use moly everywhere, but I would strongly suggest that you use moly grease on required joints, at least.

Don't listen to uneducated guest saying ''grease is grease''. If that was the case, toyota engineers would not have pointed out specific grease to use.

 

[I_bRAD]

Clunk got a lot better, but not totally gone.

It will probably be totally gone when the drive shaft is no longer connected to the differential! You might not notice from the other noises though!

 

[19963.4lsr5]

You sure your clunk isn't one of your rear upper or lower control arms?

 

[cashmoney]

Always use moly grease, as the moly additive will act as a lubricant, even if your normal grease runs out, or is displaced by shop or heavy impacts, and protect the joint as a safety.

To simplify things, I use moly everywhere, but I would strongly suggest that you use moly grease on required joints, at least.

Don't listen to uneducated guest saying ''grease is grease''. If that was the case, toyota engineers would not have pointed out specific grease to use.

And yet again, real life experience disproves paper theory as evidenced by the posts in this thread.