Prop shaft greasing

NorthwoodsRunner said:
A great advice. I only have 670 miles on the truck so I will wait until next spring before greasing the zerks. The factory did a nice job so I am good until next year.
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If you can see some grease on the slip joint and u joints then that is good. if you see it with no grease then put a little in . you do not want the de icing chemicals in those joints.

I have a flex hose on the grease gun and I made a tapered tip on the end so it will fit to grease the U joints. works good standard grease gun not the smaller trigger type..
 
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catrains said:
If you can see some grease on the slip joint and u joints then that is good. if you see it with no grease then put a little in . you do not want the de icing chemicals in those joints.

I have a flex hose on the grease gun and I made a tapered tip on the end to it will fit to grease the U joints. works good standard grease gun not the smaller trigger type..
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I did see factory grease on both slide yokes and u joints. I am planning to buy Moil 1 synthetic grease (for u joints) and Valvoline VV985 (slide yokes) per the original post. I will be buying two Lincoln hand pump grease guns with a flexible hose.
 
I have been normally going to the same dealer for my service as living in nyc there is nowhere to do maintenance on my own car, I asked the dealer about lubing the driveshaft/grease fittings and they said they never do this. I called another dealer and they also confirmed that they no longer do this although they acknowledged it to be in the service manual. Do dealers normally not perform this service and for those that cant work on cars do you take it to independent mechanics?
 
Several years ago when my 4runner was in for a free oil change I asked the dealer to grease the driveshafts. I looked under the 4runner before leaving and they were not lubed. They put it back on the lift and from a distance I watched a guy lube them. He did not use two types of grease, only one grease gun. When I got home I looked at the driveshafts. Only 3 of the 6 grease fittings were lubed. I just greased them myself and will never ask them to do it again. Same thing happened to a friend of mine with his 4runner several years ago.
 
Do you all have 2 separate grease guns? I've never used them before but will be doing this maintenance on my 5th Gen. This may seem like a dumb question but how do you get the remaining grease out of the hose before switching from Lithium to Moly or do you just pump it a few times to clean it out?
 
MyFirstRunner said:
Do you all have 2 separate grease guns? I've never used them before but will be doing this maintenance on my 5th Gen. This may seem like a dumb question but how do you get the remaining grease out of the hose before switching from Lithium to Moly or do you just pump it a few times to clean it out?
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I'm sure if you're AR enough to use 2 different greases then you're probably AR enough to have 2 grease guns. (I've got 2)

The Anal Retentive Chef
 
MyFirstRunner said:
Do you all have 2 separate grease guns? I've never used them before but will be doing this maintenance on my 5th Gen. This may seem like a dumb question but how do you get the remaining grease out of the hose before switching from Lithium to Moly or do you just pump it a few times to clean it out?
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I also use two grease guns and two grease types.
 
Drive Shaft Lubrication is Part of Regular Maintenance

Froggy said:
A look at your WARRANTY & MAINTENANCE GUIDE should answer your question. Dealer provided maintenance packages are minimal & generally do not cover Additional Maintenance Items for Special Operating Conditions.
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Drive shaft lubrication is regular maintenance on a 15000 mile interval in the 2011 Maintenance Guide.

I discovered that my dealer does not lubricate the drive shaft. They never recommended it be done. I do it myself because I suspect the techs don't have the experience or knowledge to do it correctly if they don't routinely perform this work.

Edit: Toyota has three levels of service, Yellow, Green and Blue. Blue Service, recommended every 30,000 miles or 24 months includes lubrication of propeller shaft, re-torque of bolts and other items for $300.
 
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-Lonestar- said:
Please advise if this is correct or if I bought the wrong stuff
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I bought and used that one. It's Lithium based, Extreme Pressure, NLGI #2. Owners manual recommends it for the joints and yokes. Lubricate every 15,000 miles per owners manual. Read other posts for how to lubricate the yokes.
 
DougR said:
I bought and used that one. It's Lithium based, Extreme Pressure, NLGI #2. Owners manual recommends it for the joints and yokes. Lubricate every 15,000 miles per owners manual. Read other posts for how to lubricate the yokes.
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WHich grease are you referring to that you used? I got one moly and one without.

I’m at 60k and I positive that this has never been done before so I’m hoping I don’t have to much wear already
 
-Lonestar- said:
WHich grease are you referring to that you used? I got one moly and one without.

I’m at 60k and I positive that this has never been done before so I’m hoping I don’t have to much wear already
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Moly for the two slide yoke zerks and lithium for the 4 spiders.
 
Snake05 said:
Moly for the two slide yoke zerks and lithium for the 4 spiders.
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I was referring to the ones I ordered. I was asking if they where the correct ones. I know one is moly and one is without but I was trying to make sure I got the correct ones since they say ford and gm


-Lonestar- said:
I went ahead and got this moly grease. I’m guessing it will work? I’m not sure why it says for fords though

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...ied-multi-purpose-ford-grease-vv633/7070013-P

And I got this for the spiders which says for Gm. Completely confused with this grease now.

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...e-vv615/7070011-P?searchTerm=Valvoline+grease

Please advise if this is correct or if I bought the wrong stuff
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While it's good to be conscious of these things, it seems like there's an awful lot over-thinking going on here. Toyota driveshafts are super simple, haven't changed significantly in decades and really if you looked at a car from the '40s you'd see basically the same arrangement. Toyota driveshafts last forever if you grease them regularly.

Of course if you watch the dealer or whomever they'll only use one gun - there's no reason to use two different greases in this application.

I always have just used a good-quality NLGI #2 grease. I think Lucas X-Tra Heavy Duty is in my grease gun right now.

DougR said:
I discovered that my dealer does not lubricate the drive shaft. They never recommended it be done. I do it myself because I suspect the techs don't have the experience or knowledge to do it correctly if they don't routinely perform this work.
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Not exactly rocket science. There's a reason for the term "grease monkey". That being said, it's also super easy to do yourself.
 
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I used only lithium based Valvoline grease on all the fittings on my old 4th gen for 11 years and on my 5th gen for 4 years now with zero issues and will continue to use only one grease gun.
 
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