Am I greasing the drive shaft wrong?
Am I greasing the drive shaft wrong?
This is my procedure, and it's so messy and time consuming, surely there's a better way. Critique please...
Truck is on all four wheels, on flat ground. I put the transmission in neutral. TC is in high. Engine off. Parking brake engaged.
I roll the disco back until the grease nipples are accessible for the rear. Grease the rear u-joint and slip joint. Done.
I roll the disco back again until the grease nipples are accessible for the front. Grease all the front joints.
Then I start to unbolt the driveshaft bolts that attach it to the transfer case so I can drop that end and grease the centering ball. This involves rolling the disco back, crawl out from under the disco, roll it back again to access more nuts, repeat, repeat, repeat. By now the disco has rolled back from it's original spot by about 2-3 feet depending on if I over-rolled and missed my window of opportunity to access a nut.
Drop that end of the driveshaft, grease the centering ball, and then roll, roll, roll to put the nuts back on.
Anyway. All the rolling and checking and greasing and such - takes an hour or more depending, I'm absolutely disgusting by the end of it, and it would be so much more bearable if this was a 20,000-mile thing instead of an every oil change thing. The oil change takes 15 minutes.
And I can't forget to mention the total mess flung grease makes of the undercarriage. I clean up the overflow grease the best I can, but it'll still shoot grease everywhere until the next grease session.
Honestly, the real pain is just the process involved in having to grease the centering ball. Before adding that to the list, I didn't have to do the roll-for-access thing more than once or twice.
Is this really what everyone else is doing too? Every oil change? Goodness.
Truck is on all four wheels, on flat ground. I put the transmission in neutral. TC is in high. Engine off. Parking brake engaged.
I roll the disco back until the grease nipples are accessible for the rear. Grease the rear u-joint and slip joint. Done.
I roll the disco back again until the grease nipples are accessible for the front. Grease all the front joints.
Then I start to unbolt the driveshaft bolts that attach it to the transfer case so I can drop that end and grease the centering ball. This involves rolling the disco back, crawl out from under the disco, roll it back again to access more nuts, repeat, repeat, repeat. By now the disco has rolled back from it's original spot by about 2-3 feet depending on if I over-rolled and missed my window of opportunity to access a nut.
Drop that end of the driveshaft, grease the centering ball, and then roll, roll, roll to put the nuts back on.
Anyway. All the rolling and checking and greasing and such - takes an hour or more depending, I'm absolutely disgusting by the end of it, and it would be so much more bearable if this was a 20,000-mile thing instead of an every oil change thing. The oil change takes 15 minutes.
And I can't forget to mention the total mess flung grease makes of the undercarriage. I clean up the overflow grease the best I can, but it'll still shoot grease everywhere until the next grease session.
Honestly, the real pain is just the process involved in having to grease the centering ball. Before adding that to the list, I didn't have to do the roll-for-access thing more than once or twice.
Is this really what everyone else is doing too? Every oil change? Goodness.
Rock Crawling
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 435
Likes: 141
From: Birmingham, AL
I don’t want to speak for people with more knowledge, but while its great practice to do that every oil change, the front driveshaft is the only one that really NEEDS to be greased the often due to the heat exposure.
in my opinion modern synthetic greases should hold up 10-20k miles if not a lot longer than that in normal operating conditions.
I just hit hit the accessible grease nipples each oil change in the front and rear shafts.
in my opinion modern synthetic greases should hold up 10-20k miles if not a lot longer than that in normal operating conditions.
I just hit hit the accessible grease nipples each oil change in the front and rear shafts.
I chock the back wheels, raise the passenger front wheel off the ground and put the vehicle in neutral. I rotate the front wheel with my foot to gain access to everything on the front prop shaft. If I need to remove the flange bolts, I just jam my foot against tire and ground to keep the prop shaft from turning while I loosen or tighten the bolts.
Both true. Maybe due the centering ball lube every other oil change, or every third. Some shafts don't even have the lube point on the centering ball. I honestly think a spray of Maxima chain wax would be almost as good, probably good enough.
BTW, you can make a good aluminum heat shield for the front joint on the catalytic converter using some aluminum furnace duct.
BTW, you can make a good aluminum heat shield for the front joint on the catalytic converter using some aluminum furnace duct.
Camel Trophy
Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 4,856
Likes: 1,395
From: Michigan
Usually grease the driveshaft u-joints every service but, do the center joint everyother. Normally only crawl under once, first, put the hi-lo shifter in neutral and then slid underneath, hold the driveshaft with prybar wedged in u-joint yoke, while removing flange bolts. Grease center joint and reassemble.
Rock Crawling
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 335
Likes: 192
From: US West
I find that having a needle nozzle for the grease gun can make the job smoother...
