Grease your drive shaft you lazy sods.

I just rubbed it in. Instant rustproofing.

 

Heyyy. Don't call me a lazy sod. You hurt my feelings. Fink. . Do I need to replace my u joints, yes. But until then I grease the shit out of them. Every month to Every other month.

 

And now welcome to the stage.....Intentionally Ambiguous![/QUOTE]

 

I’m still working on trying to get mine greased. I spoke to our shop mechanic and he said rarely do grease zerks seize. I’m going to make a custom shaved down tip like PHM did to see if I can get a better bite on it.

It’s funny because the last few months, I’ve had this random chirp when driving. It’s definitely a rotational noise but it isn’t consistent with the tire speed. It’s like a chirp once every five seconds at 60mph. It comes and goes but today is started chirping again. I don’t know but I thought to put in 4WD to see if was still there. As soon as 4wd kicked on, the chirping went away. I have a feeling it’s the u-joints.

 

Can you remove the zerk fittings and install new ones? I think 1/4 or 5/16 socket will do it

 

If your comment is in response to SouthPaw's comment, I think he meant to use "do" instead of "due". i.e. their mechanic said "rarely do grease zerks seize" which is accurate, at least down here. Can't speak for what happens to zerks in the rust belt.

In all my life, I think I've only seen two or three zerks that wouldn't accept grease, and it was because they weren't properly cleaned before someone pumped grease. Problem easily solved with all but one by pulling them off with a ratchet, then blowing a jet of air through them from the back side.

 

Correct, spelling error on my part.

 

Confirm the check valve on the zerk fitting can be depressed. Use the corner of a small screw driver to press the ball in. If grease is entering, depressing the ball should allow a minute amount to come back out as it will be under pressure if there is a blockage. If they’ve never been done before and the oil has completely leached out of the thickener it is possible to have a blockage. This in my experience is very rare.

Another thing you can try is once the gun tip is latched onto the fitting, tighten the tip of the gun with a small channel lock. This will help hold the fingers on the zerk. You may need to loosen in the same manner to get the tip back off the zerk.

 

So I gave it another shot, no dice. Here is what one looks like:

Cleaned fitting


Grease coupler attached securely and holding on by itself:


After a gentle pump of grease, it goes everywhere but in:


At this point, I’m thinking it could be my grease whip fitting. It’s brand new but I tried to use it to grease my JBA UCA and it did the same thing. I’m going to get a new coupler tomorrow and if not, stopping by harbor freight to get some replacement zerks.

 

Done sir done, I finally got a few moments with both kids napping and my wife and in-laws out of the house for a bit. First time I’ve done this since I bought it in 17’ 45k miles ago. Probably going to repeat every other oil change

 

Toyota says every 5k miles for prop shaft lube, IIRC. I am 100% certain mine probably hadn't been done in at least 20-35k, if ever (truck is just over 70k miles)

 

Ooh every oil change it is then haha I’ve recently started commuting via the train so the truck will be driven a whole 4 miles round trip to the station each day. I’m sure I can justify spending more time keeping up with it, hopefully the annoying intermittent thunk is gone for good

 

1/2 of my zerks are done. I'm unable to pump grease into the ones requiring a needle nose adapter.

I may try the grind down mod to the normal size fitting to see if it makes a difference. Need to borrow an angle grinder for that to happen.

 

I do mine every oil change.

It's no big deal.

 

Fixed all of my thunking issues accelerating from a stop.

 

Need to get on this soon. Keep forgetting. Maybe Wednesday.

 

It's less than 10 mins, just get on it! Remember for sliding yolk, it'll seem like it's not taking grease. After pumping a few times, jump up and down on the bumper to distribute.

 

This is the One time it is good to be a 3 Pump Chump!!!

(don't keeping pumping till something oozes out, that damages the seals).

 

3pump? That’s two many chump pumps!!!

 

Dang, you Americans like to take the fun out of everything. I refuse to play with zerks, nipples are far more fun.

 

Why would 2wd not have zerks for maintenance? makes no sence. I have a 2wd and wanted to know if it is possible to buy OEM joints that have the zerks, then install them onto my 2wd driveshaft?

 

I grease my zerks every other oil change

 

I have 345k original miles on my 2000 2wd. I was looking for an issue with my drive system (a "thump" sound that started less than 50 miles ago and doesn't seem to be ABS related) and found the rubber boot worn out on my carrier bearing. While replacing that I replaced all my drive shaft bearings - just because. All of the other bearings were fine, though they didn't have zerk fittings on them. The replacement bearings have zerk fittings.
This didn't fix the "thump" sound. Next I'm draining the diff to look for metal.

 

My boot is split but no issues at this time. RWD as well. Interesting replacements have zerks. Did you get RWD or AWD replacement?
When was your last diff drain and fill

 

The replacements were RWD from O'Reilly's. Last diff drain and fill was about 45k miles ago. I'll be doing another tomorrow.

 

Hmm, you may want to consider posting a new thread. You're in a 2000, so the typical 2WD TSB doesn't apply. You're not 4WD so the usual failure to grease the slip yoke doesn't apply else I'd point you here. https://www.tundras.com/threads/driveline-clunk-found.104760/#post-2694492

Is this comment in reply to your 2021? This thread is in 1st gen, we don't have a lot of experience with the newer trucks. But yeah, I think it's stupid the 1st gen 2WD don't have zerks either. You can always go non-OEM with zerks.

 

Thanks for the reminder!

 

SouthPaw - if it makes you feel better, I also have a fitting that will not take grease. The zerk is clean, the little ball moves freely, and I've tried using the normal grease-gun adapter, the neelde nose adapter, and a special, thin, long-nose adapter. Nothing works. And the zerk on this u-joint (transfer case side of the front driveshaft) is not removable. I wonder if the grease in the joint has hardened. Otherwise, I can't figure out the problem.

P.S. - I grease my truck ever oil change (moly grease for the double-cardigan).

 

I have a 04’ with 300,000 miles. I had one u joint with the bearings starting to go out about 7 years ago. This year I had the same u joint I replaced I go out along with the carrier bearing was pretty loose. They did a little rebalancing of the drive shaft this time.

I probably could have greased them more often. Don’t add too much grease to push out the seals though…or you will have a mess and they will go out anyway.

symptoms the first time. I had a chirp/ squeak backing up the truck.

symptoms of bad u joint the second time. I had a clunk going from reverse to forward. I could not feel any play in the shaft with the truck on the ground, but it was shot.

I think the loose carrier bearing was causing a little extra vibrations.

 

If you struggle to get grease in the fitting (Splurts out the side) you can use one of these. I use one for the section that goes to the front wheels which is a pain to grease. Simply depress the little ball with the tip of the needle and pump away.