Driveshaft zerks

[2002tii]

Admittedly, I've never greased a driveshaft before, so this was uncharted territory for me.

For the life of me, I can't find the two more visible (of the three) zerks at the front of the rear driveshaft. They're just not there. The other one (the "hidden" one was easy to find. It's not that there is dirt or grease covering the joint - I cleaned it off.

Numbers 4 and 5 here... are they not on 2002 4WDs? What gives??

(from this thread http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/97006-drive-prop-shaft-greasing-guide.html )

 

[Nelsonmd]

Did you rotate the rear driveshaft and look for them? Maybe they are facing upwards.

This shows them 4Runners.org - Lubing Your Driveshaft

This, or clean off the faces they should be on and make sure they haven't either fallen out or broken off.

 

[2002tii]

Yep, rotated it 360 degrees. Both sides of the double cardan are flush, as though there were never zerks there.

 

[Jon]

You do mean the zerks in the U-joints? Nipples 1,3,4,5, and 8? It's possible that the U-joints were changed with aftermarket non-greasable ones. Not a big deal. If you suspect a U-joint failure, the best way to diagnose it is to drop the drive shaft and and move the flange around. As long as there's no binding or play, it's good. While its down you may as well pull the telescoping halves apart and fill it with gobs of grease rather than pumping it through the zerk. Good luck

 

[Jon]

Ha, I said nipples :girl:

 

[downpour11]

Ha, I said nipples :girl:

:lmao: :lmao:

 

[hrt4me]

Yep, rotated it 360 degrees. Both sides of the double cardan are flush, as though there were never zerks there.

did you figure it out?

 

[2002tii]

You do mean the zerks in the U-joints? Nipples 1,3,4,5, and 8? It's possible that the U-joints were changed with aftermarket non-greasable ones. Not a big deal. If you suspect a U-joint failure, the best way to diagnose it is to drop the drive shaft and and move the flange around. As long as there's no binding or play, it's good. While its down you may as well pull the telescoping halves apart and fill it with gobs of grease rather than pumping it through the zerk. Good luck

I guess that's what it must be. I didn't realize non-greasable U-joints were available for 4Runners. So there's no maintenance to those?

I don't think anything is going wrong... I was just greasing the others and noticed I don't have as many nipples as I should (see, I can make a funny too :tongue1