Re: Grease your zerks!

You don't want to over grease the slip joints. They just need a few pumps. The u-joints you can pump until you get the old coming through the seals. Usually only 2-3 pumps for me.


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Re: Grease your zerks!

You don't want to over grease the slip joints. They just need a few pumps. The u-joints you can pump until you get the old coming through the seals. Usually only 2-3 pumps for me.


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^ This. Don't grease your slips until they extend - that is too much. Just a few pumps each time.

 

I do it every oil change or after every 4x4 trip its a good way to look for damage while your under the rig. Replacing the zerks or buying angled zerks to get to them easier is also a cheap yet effective mod

 

I have a hard time understanding why you don't grease the slip joints more than a few pumps. I pumped mine and saw no grease so I thought they were dry and kept going... :lol:

Still haven't had any issues though.

 

no kidding. I pumped at least 30 times. I agree some pumps are slower some are faster but its a lot of pumps to just make it extend. once it starts to extend, it will go back which means its pushing air out. I am gonna lube it again to push all the junk out.

Usually Toyota slip yokes are lightly greased from the factory new. So the first time you grease them you need to get the grease flowing down the splines and out the seal at the splines. Once you do this the next time and from then on you just need several pumps. There is a great article on Driveline care and maintenence at Tom Woods Driveshafts. Just click on the "Tech Info" link at the top of the home page.

Tom Wood's Custom Drive Shafts - Tom Woods Custom Drive Shafts Custom Driveshafts Specialist

good read.:simmadown:
I think your under greased opinion is correct. the drive shaft recall is how Toyota trying to address the issue. I suspect the "new" replacement is actually an over greased version of the same driveshaft.
here is a picture of someone had the drive shaft replaced a couple days after. notice Toyota packed **** load of grease in the "new" drive shaft?
idk about other Toyota dealer but the one I went to yesterday didnt grease the zerks even I asked them to. I guess toyota has been getting too many complains about the thud and clunk so they decided just recall all the drive shaft and replace with one thats filled with a lot of grease.

 

the slip yokes will be hydrolocked with to much grease...

 

So a whole tube of Lucus Red Sticky would be....Bad? :lol:

The way I see it- I''ve added more weight down low to aid in keeping me planted to the rocks in of camber situations...:rofl:

 

Usually Toyota slip yokes are lightly greased from the factory new. So the first time you grease them you need to get the grease flowing down the splines and out the seal at the splines. Once you do this the next time and from then on you just need several pumps. There is a great article on Driveline care and maintenence at Tom Woods Driveshafts. Just click on the "Tech Info" link at the top of the home page.

Tom Wood's Custom Drive Shafts - Tom Woods Custom Drive Shafts Custom Driveshafts Specialist

 

Re: Grease your zerks!

Thx for info ...


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Interesting, I have always been a proponent of two or three pumps in the slipjoint, reading Tom Woods page would indicated that there is a relief hole. I've never noticed if the FJ Drive has one, anyone else notice if there is a relief hole on the slipjoint of the driveshaft?

 

yes there is one. there is a cap inside the u joint assembly on the slip yoke side. you can feel it.

 

G'day cmaj7,
Can't say I've noticed one....
Cheers
Baz

 

I haven't noticed one either but the joint has to breathe. Once its full it will spit out the extra grease. From then on just pump in a couple of squirts. Anything more will just piss out and make a mess.

 

yes. some came out when I throw the car in gear. it looked like poo since I am using dark brown color MP grease.
although its always a good idea to purge old grease out of the spines.

 

alright so I went ahead and purged the slip yoke. I pumped until grease starts to come out of it.
the slip yoke extended to about a quarter of an inch. when I wiped everything clean and started the engine. I then throw in drive and reverse a couple of times. got under there some more grease came out.
I wiped everything clean and took it for a drive. when I got back I got down there and looked for grease. not much came out during the drive which means it didnt hydrolock.
my conclusion, its impossible to hydrolock by putting too much grease HOWEVER if you've never purged the seal before for a very long time, it is possible that the seal might gunked up bad and not allowing excess grease to come out. if thats the case the slip yoke is under pressure too imagine a gas shock. what you need to do is take it apart and clean it.
the gear shift was much smoother since the spines are lubed now. cant imagine why Toyota would under lube the slip yoke. easier assembling maybe because if there's too much its very hard to compress the slip yoke to fit in the gap between the transfer case and diff?

 

Since I will be doing this soon I have been looking into which types of grease to use and was concerned reading that two different types of grease were needed.

After consulting my 2013 owner's manual (section 6-1, pg.518), I discovered the following:

Spider: Lithium base chassis grease, NLGI No.2

Slip Yoke: Molybdenum-disulfide lithium base chassis grease, NLGI No.2 or lithium base chassis grease, NLGI No.2.

So it looks like a non-moly grease is ok for everything if you don't feel like keeping up with two different types. I had read lots of discussion but not anything official per se and wanted to get it out there in case anyone else was wondering. :cheers:

 

non-moly is okay if you lube it often.

 

This is all that I will allow on the FJ:

AMSOIL Series 2000 Synthetic Racing Grease

Look at the specs and I think you'll be convinced as well.

 

Interesting. I have always been under the assumption too much was bad. Maybe I just need to get more in there. The thump does come back rather quickly with my 3 or 4 pump method....

I also do it on the ground, so there will undoubtedly be more room left over as the suspension extends, compared to packing it full on a lift as in the pic above

 

once it starts to extend, you are still have way till full. there are some air in it and it will start to come out.

huh... interesting... so the whole hydrolock thinking was just a myth?

well half half. it IS possible to hydrolock when the seals are full of caked on old grease due to under greasing.

 

huh... interesting... so the whole hydrolock thinking was just a myth?

 

Re: Grease your zerks!

Has anyone done a how-to on this for mechanical newbs like me who would love to do this stuff ourselves? I don't even know what a zerk looks like let alone how to find them on the truck!

These simple things get me wanting to do more and more myself.


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Re: Grease your zerks!

Has anyone done a how-to on this for mechanical newbs like me who would love to do this stuff ourselves? I don't even know what a zerk looks like let alone how to find them on the truck!

These simple things get me wanting to do more and more myself.


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Pretty simple. Some pics in here: http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/maintenance-tech/61544-zerks.html

Once you crawl under there and feel around the U joint and driveshafts a while it all becomes apparent. Just grab some rubber gloves at the store while you are getting grease if you are not real familiar...gets pretty greasy lol

 

to help make this maint fun, get a Lincoln power rechargeable grease gun. one of my fav tools. i used to hate pumping that grease gun with one hand while holding the hose onto the zerk with the other.

 

i attempted to look for the zerks today and could only find zerks, one on each end of the drive shaft and another on the outside on the driveshaft

 

yes. its three per drive shaft.

 

Re: Grease your zerks!

Great thread !!!!!!!


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Re: Grease your zerks!

So I took my FJ in yesterday for 5000mile oil change. Told the guy to lube the zerks and he did'nt do it. Didn't get too crazy about it since it was free.
I went and bought a grease gun and some Valvoline MP grease and decided to grease the zerks myself.
Man the grease in the U-Joints were dirty sort of gray yellow ish color that looked like grease mixed with water. Also my slip yokes just after 5000 miles were pretty dry. I pumped and pumped for a very long time before they started to extend and I heard you still have to keep going until you can see new grease coming out of the seals.
Either way its a fairly easy job to do and everybody should do it at least every 5000 miles (less if off road or rainy weather).
Also, don't use moly grease in the u-joints cuz it will damage the needle bearings. get a good non-moly multi-purpose lithium grease and lube the zerks properly and regularly is all you need.:clap:

How could / would Moly grease damage needle bearings.....especially if it has lithium blended with it??.

 

Re: Grease your zerks!

How could / would Moly grease damage needle bearings.....especially if it has lithium blended with it??.

moly being a very fine particle is great for reducing friction. however in needle bearings, its better to not use moly because it can be too slippery for needle bearings to actually work as they should be.

 

I have 3200 miles on my truck, so I need to lube what, the drive shaft, and steering joints I can find? Anything else?
I'm glad to now know what the little grease fittings are called !!!!!!

 

In my 13 TT I lubed the zerks on the driveshafts. I plan on doing it every 5K miles. Easy to do and takes a few minutes.

Nothing that I'm aware of in the steering linkage that needs lubed.

 

To slippery for needle bearings....got it.

 

Hit mine today. Put it on ramps and all 6 were easy to grease..lucked out.

 

Finally bought myself a grease gun today and lubed up all my zerks with AMSOIL Series 2000 Synthetic Racing Grease, I was way over due!

 

how is amsoil 2000 compared to Red Line 80402 Synthetic Grease? i use red line on my total chaos uca's, wondering if it's safe to use on everything else? if it's compatible w/ oem grease