There is a rubber cover over the centering ball , you have to get the grease passed that so it will actually get to where it needs to go , so this is how you do it,
get one of those skinny straw’s that come with brake cleaner/ carb cleaner etc, then insert it between the rubber covering and centering ball & push it in about 1 1/2 inches , get a grease gun attach the needle fitting to it and slide the needle into the straw and push grease trough it as much as you can , turn the driveshaft & move the straw to opposite side & do it again, this way grease will actually get to where it needs to go, using bearing high heat grease is best , but any grease will be better than no grease. (Dropping driveshaft makes the process easier).

 

Every 15-20k miles have the centering ball assembly greased by a driveline shop or yourself, which requires removal of the shaft. Spraying anything on the exterior doesn't make any sense to me, your just waiting for an internal failure at some point.

 

Not all have the rubber cover or the grease fitting. On the ones with no fitting there is no internal reservoir with grease to lubricate the ball and socket. Spraying it with a lubricant is just as valid as wiping grease on it. In fact, spraying it with a chain wax type of lubricant that is essentially lubricant paint that sticks to the surface will in many ways be better than applying grease to a high polish surface where it will just fling off. Additionally, the chain wax will penetrate in the clearance between the ball and socket and lubricate the surfaces that you cannot see or get to so that you can put grease on it.

 

I've been greasing my front drive shaft regularly but wasn't aware that the centering ball needed lube as well. This weekend I was about 600 miles form home and the front DS started screaming like a banshee. I had just changed the oil and greased the zerks the night before, so I was plenty confused. Once I got the shaft out the double cardone was pretty stiff and it was making an awful racket even flexing it by hand. I did my best to get some grease on the shiny thing about the size of a pingpong ball and worked it back and fourth. It loosened up considerably and the noise got way better, but didn't go away so I threw it in the back and locked the center diff to enable me to drive home. Here's the state of the joint now, is this saveable or should this be rebuilt? I don't think I have a rubber cover (and don't see a grease fitting) so some spray chain lube is probably the best I can do on my own. There is zero play or slop in the joints and it's been balanced so I'd kind of like to try to save it, despite being a cheap aftermarket version.

 

I have a Tom Woods with the needle port in the area below. You might rotate it and check all sides for the needle port if it has one. It could be under some dirt. I think it would be pretty easy to fabricate a safety loop for the front shaft with some basic welding / fab skills. It could even be part of a skid plate combo.

 

Thanks for the tip. There's quite a bit of grease in there. I'll clean it up and check more closely..

 

This happened to my Tom Woods a few years ago. The independent LR shop was surprised by this as the shaft was only a couple of years old and greased religiously.

 

Yeah, I have heard of a few TW fails. Knocking on wood now. No pun intended. Another reason to fabricate the safety loop.

 

OK, so what I'm seeing here is a tear in the metal? The red arrow is pointing towards what looks like a sheared surface, and it came out of the piece that the green arrow is pointing at? Or did it break away from the dust cap thing in the red circle? Or, was it originally its own piece that just wore out?

 

Good eye Ahab. I am not sure. The pic came from the shop when they removed it. It was a few years ago. It does look like metal shearing off and maybe any sort of lubrication may not have helped at all.