Discovery II Talk about the Land Rover Discovery II within.
Sponsored by:
Sponsored by:

greasing front drive shaft

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
  #11  
Old 07-05-2009, 07:09 AM
antichrist's Avatar
Baja
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Georgia, USA
Posts: 5,232
Received 51 Likes on 44 Posts
Default

Originally Posted by chad420
now easy on the comments (im a newbie) but when greasing do i hit all three fittings or just one and watch for the grease to come out????
Aboslutely! You must see new fresh grease coming out from around all 4 seals for each u-joint. It's the only way to flush out the old dried out grease and any contaminants. With the advent of "sealed for life" components, it seems most mechanics are clueless on how to properly lube u-joints when faced with a grease fitting. When I fist started working on cars nearly every garage had a lube bay.

Sometimes it's difficult to get new grease to come out from around all 4 seals, it just want's to come out around 2 or 3 of them. If that happens one the yoke opposite the one where the grease isn't coming out, if it a few light taps with a hammer, preferably brass, but a regular ball peen hammer is ok since you're not hitting it hard. This will cause the u-joint to shift slightly in the cups towards the hammer blows and then grease will come out from the other side when you pump it in.
Then just take your finger and run it around the seals to reseat any that may have popped loose, though they rarely do, as greasble u-joints are designed to be greased that way.

Then move on to the next u-joint.

4 fittings on the front propshaft, 1 on each u-joint and 1 on the slip joint, though the slip joint fitting may have a threaded plug installed instead. If it does you'll need to get one to put in when you grease it, then remove and put the plug back in because of close clearance with the cats. Alternatively, you can install a flush fitting, which is what I did. But that takes a different end on the grease gun.

The service interval is every 5,000 miles for normal use, but I do mine every 3,000 miles (every oil change), along with my tie rod ends as I'm under there anyway and it's easier to remember. So I just have a "lube day".

Here's a photo of a u-joint showing where I mean about tapping. I don't have a photo handy of one installed in the propshaft, but you should get the idea.

Edit - I took a couple photos of an extra rebuilt propshaft I have on the shelf.
I also pointed to how I do alignment marks when rebuilding one.
I added a photo of the flush zerk on the slip joint.
 
Attached Thumbnails greasing front drive shaft-dc-labeled.jpg   greasing front drive shaft-slip-joint_zerk-labled.jpg  

Last edited by antichrist; 07-05-2009 at 02:42 PM.
  #12  
Old 07-05-2009, 10:27 AM
Spike555's Avatar
Team Owner
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Grand Rapids MI
Posts: 26,212
Likes: 0
Received 95 Likes on 72 Posts
Default

[IMG][/IMG]

What a u-joint looks like installed with teh grease fitting looking you straight in the face.
And like AntiChrist said, grease them at EVERY oil change and after every time you drive through axle deep water.
 
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
RobG4
Discovery I
7
07-27-2013 07:38 AM
mylesman12
Discovery II
15
10-09-2012 05:48 PM
Grumpo
Discovery II
7
08-29-2012 12:17 PM
lordmorpheus
Discovery II
17
06-06-2010 07:28 AM
josemex
Discovery II
8
08-03-2009 04:38 PM



Quick Reply: greasing front drive shaft



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:10 PM.