I have another question that has been bugging me. Why is it that i just started getting this clicking noise after greasing the u joints? It was working just fine prior to greasing. I am not saying I will not be greasing any longer, that is absurd. Just odd that my trying to prolong the life of my drive shaft caused it to fail.

 

did you grease the bearing after driving? you should never grease a hot bearing

 

Come to think of it, I drove to get more grease and then greased them. I did not know about that. More mistakes=more $.

 

could be # of things.
a bad seized bearing could have been freed up, a little. (gets my vote)
coincidence.
someone with my lame sense of humor put a zip tie around you drive shaft, while you weren't looking.

you did not cause a problem by greasing, unless you left the grease gun hanging off of a zerk. you likely, just made an existing problem noticeable.

 

on a hot bearing the grease will just bake as soon as it hits the bearing surface, on a running bearing it will feel full but its not the centrifugal force keep the grease from entering the bearing while moving. grease a dry hot bearing while its running and you can hear it bust up inside as the grease hits it.

 

I'm confident this is right up there with "don't use too much grease or you will blow the seals."
I have never seen any reference to this in any u-joint manufacture's service literature. If you think about it, it doesn't make any sense.

If you put a little grease on a hot needle bearing and leave it sitting there it might bake on to the surface, but I can't see that happening when you're greasing the u-joint. The flow of grease over the bearings will cool them enough (assuming they are that hot to start with) that the grease won't bake on.

 

"don't use too much grease or you will blow the seals"
oh you don't believe in blowing out grease seals either, ok enough said

 

blown a seal?......... "no that's just a little frost in my mustache"

 

Argggh! Not again!
You can NOT blow a u-joint seal greasing a u-joint. They are designed to allow you to purge the old grease and contaminants from the u-joint.
If you aren't seeing new grease come from around all 4 seals on a u-joint, you aren't doing it correctly.

If you think that's wrong, take it up with Spicer, Neapco, GKN, Federal Mogul, etc.
http://www2.dana.com/pdf/DSMT-0100.pdf

 

For those who don't know the joke...

A vacationing penguin is driving his through Arizona when he notices that the oil pressure light is on. He gets out to look and sees oil dripping out of the motor. He drives to the nearest town and stops at the first gas station.

After dropping the car off, the penguin goes for a walk around town. He sees an ice-cream shop and, being a penguin in Arizona, decides that something cold would really hit the spot. He gets a big dish of ice cream and sits down to eat. Having no hands he makes a real mess trying to eat with his flippers. After finishing his ice cream, he goes back to the gas station and asks the mechanic if he's found the problem. The mechanic looks up and says "It looks like you blew a seal."

"No no," the penguin replies, "it's just ice cream."