Did your questions get answered Leaky?

 

And then some. Thanks!

 

Bought the grease gun and grease and greased all 6 fittings (front and rear shafts). I was surprised to find that there appeared to be hardly any grease in the shafts (or it was all dry), since I have had a "lube and oil change" from my local shop several times (and only 1000 miles ago).

Anyway, I greased until the fresh stuff came out and it went well. Also, I had a slight "thunk" that would occur occasionally when the transmission down shifted when coming to a stop. The sound is gone and downshifting seems nice and smooth now.

Of course that makes me think the u-joints have taken a beating lately and may need to be replaced sooner that I would like. Oh well.

One question I have about this procedure.

Is there a simple way to get the drive shafts positioned to make reaching the fittings easier?

I had to move the car a foot or two to get them where I wanted them, but I thought there must be an easier way.

Thanks again for all the help!!

 

I usually just raise one wheel off the ground just enough to spin it so I can get to the fittings.

 

I am probably about to give some of these guys a heart attack but I had my wife put her foot on the brake and shift into neutral which allowed me to spin the shaft. Then she put it back into park and put on the e-brake so I could brake the nuts loose. Just kept repeating the procedure. BTW don't forget to mark the original position of the DS before you remove to help prevent vibration on reinstall. Mark with something that won't rub off. I scored mine and now I can use the marks from here on out if I need to drop the DS for some reason.

 

If you didnt do it it didnt get done.


I have found the best way to grease the prop shafts is to run both passenger side wheels up on ramps, this makes changing the oil easier as well as greasing.
You will need to move the truck a few inches to get to all of the u-joints.
When you replace your u-joints plan ahead and "clock" all of the grease fittings on the same side.

 

That's fine, but if using u-joints with the zerk in the valley of the cross be sure they are both oriented to both zerks are under compression loading.