My U Joints are shot!!!

[etlsport]

sorry, no video tonight.. got called into work.. should have it up over the weekend

my joints took a little muscle to force the grease through... if you are having grease come back out of the zerk fitting, it either means your fitting is jammed up with a small pebble or your grease gun tip is the wrong size

[tom4bren]

"I greased my U joints this evening, but I could get much to even penetrate the zerk... weird."

Two thoughts:

1) they don't hold much grease - just a small hole down the length of each leg of the cross to allow the grease to get out to the bearing cups (also happens to be the outer race). The cups aren't that big & they are pretty full considering that they cover the needle bearings and the ends of the cross (inner race). Basically the only room for grease is the area around the needle bearings.

2) without regular service (grease) the bearings could have gotten hot enough to 'cook' the grease & make it harden. You can't force new in if you can't push the old out.

I had an old Dodge & the U Joints didn't have Zirk's. When I finally went to replace, guess what ... no grease in the cups & no needle bearings either - just rust colored dust.

[CoastieCosta567]

Vid... Etlsport?

[Hotsauce]

If you take your front or rear driveshaft off for any reason, put a mark or scratch on both flanges to line them back up to the same position when they go back.

John C.

[tom4bren]

"If you take your front or rear driveshaft off for any reason, put a mark or scratch on both flanges to line them back up to the same position when they go back."

'Zackly - that's the phase I mentioned earlier - the front & rear U-joints need to be oriented properly with each other.

[etlsport]

uploading the video now to youtube.. but i have to run to work in like 15 minutes and its not done uploading.. ill try to post the link to the video later but if you dont want to wait that long try searching youtube for "vehicross zerk"

I have no idea what happened to my grease gun in the move, so the video just shows the zerk fittings on the u joints and the drive shaft

what you would do is buy a grease gun with a flexible hose at least 12" (i had to buy them separate) buy some grease to put in it, it comes in a cardboard tube, i used mobil 1 synthetic grease.. load up the tube into your grease gun according to the instructions

get under the vx and locate your zerk fittings.. if you cant find them, roll the vx forward about 1 foot and check again (dont forget to put it in park and set your parking brake!!!)

push the tip of the grease gun squarely onto the zerk fitting.. start pumping grease in! if you see grease coming out from around the fitting, make sure the grease gun is pushed all the way on and try again, pump grease until the grease you see start to come out of the middle of the u joints looks clean (you will hear it and see it come out after 5-6 pumps)
the fitting in the middle, the grease will come out where the driveshaft changes sizes, youll see it

[etlsport]

oh one thing.. i would recommend getting some latex gloves.. i got that grease on my hands the first time i did it.. my hands felt slimey for a week.. used latex gloves this time... i was eating fries about 10 min later