Thanks for helping... See pictures below.

Help me get started here...I dont know what this is called. Today I went underneath to change my fuel filter on my 1994 4Runner with 115Kmiles. When I looked up, I saw this strip of grease. I think it came from whats called the ujoint. A few months back, I tried to put in some grease, but it just ozzed out of the zerk fitting. I left it alone since cuz of my carpo tunnel syndrome. Now I have this large grease streak.

How do I go about resolving this? I can that the bolts off but do I replace the entire ujoint? Am I calling it the right part..ujoint?

I have been having this clunk every time I accelerate. Wondering now if this is the cause. Thanks for helping me learn..Kudos to ya!

 

What you're looking at in picture A is the grease nipple. When you do an oil change, usually you'd pump grease into that until the dirty grease is forced from your U-joint and clean grease comes out. Clean off that grease. Some splattered grease is normal. It will ooze out a bit as they heat up with use. Not too worry too much. I'm sure we all have grease like that under out 4Runners.

B) is the spider bearing cap, that's what your arrow is pointing to. The part with the bolts holding it on is your yolk. You have two U shaped yolks. Your U-joint is the + shaped cross piece between the two yolks. If you hear clunking while accelerating/decelerating, or vibration while driving, it might be the joint has failed. Easiest way to find out is to remove the driveshaft from both ends. Eight bolts in all, if memory serves, then switch to 4wd. You'll behave like a front wheel drive at this point. If the noise/vibration goes away, you're pretty sure that it's a U-joint problem.

 

Thanks RobD. I will try your suggestion tomorrow. I do have a 4WD. My question is if it is broken, I need to replace it. If anyone has pics of the eight bolt to remove on the driveshaft, I would be most appreciative. I have more tools than knowledge, but I am quickly learning from many teachers here in this forum. Oh, I am not feeling any vibration while driving. By the way, I dont see the rubber boot that holds the grease inside. Does this mean it ripped off?

thanks again.

 

i can see a couple of the rubber boots in the pics. there are 4 bolts holding the drive shaft to your transfer case flange and rear end flange. the bolts are 14mm

 

get under there, and grab the driveshaft near the u-joint, and try to jerk it all around. it should be solidly in place. if it wiggles then the u-joint is wearing out. It's completely conceivable to be spreading grease like that. when you add grease to it you add grease till you hear the seal, when you hear the seal thats the sound of excess grease being pushed out around it. the excess grease will be outside the joint, and ass the driveshaft spins it will spray grease on the undercariage like that.

 

that is normal if greesed properly

 

While your under there with the grease gun, lube up all the other nipples too! Look in your manual to find them all if you can't see them, there is a bunch of them to do.

 

That's normal. I just bought my 4Runner a few months ago and mine has it. It's better to have the extra squish out than not have enough grease in them. Haven't gotten a chance to clean mine up yet.

 

If you need information, you have two choices:

1) buy a set of used Factory Service Manuals from eBay.
2) www.techinfo.toyota.com and pay $10 per day to download all the factory manuals you want. It would take about 1/2 an hour to download all the stuff you need for your Toy.