4RUNR

little update: had to open the grease nipple and jump on the back bumper to release some of the grease. The excess did not come out as expected in the U joint or the slip joint.

The slip joint was not compressing hence why pushing the button on the shifter and taking it out and putting it back in park was not as smooth as before.

Check it often people before the transfer case goes "crack"

bryontro

Is the plastic skid just the section under the oil pan to get to the drain bolt or is there more? I haven't really looked yet.--

If you look under the truck near the transfer case you will see the skid plate come out and stop. That part on the very end is plastic. Don't know why but it is. Didn't notice until I had the truck on a lift. The Medal part of the skid plate is not very thick either. Nothing like what is on my 92" 4runner. Unusual..

Shane

The slip-joint should never be totally filled, 3-4 pumps of grease every oil change is plenty. The u-joints each have their own grease nipple, but some may have a plug instead while some others are "permanently" lubed. On the CV joint there's 3 nipples, one on each u-joint and one in the middle for the center ball.

Grease in the slip joint does not travel to the u-joints!

4RUNR

Shane, but every grease gun is different. I have one that uses the mini-grease-cartridges. It would probably take 2-3 pumps to equal one that of a full size grease gun.

And the thing is, after 3 pumps it didn't change a bit. Then I added 3 more, still nothing, then another 3.... and on. Only filling it up to the top then letting out the excess fixed the lash.

Shane

I was referencing the fullsize hand operated guns. The splines in the slip joint have very close tolerances and there is a small pocket in the slip that acts as a grease reservior. If you overfill it, the driveline essentially hydrolocks and cannot compress. You can potentially do severe damage to the driveline if it is subjected to a hard compression as the grease cannot escape past the splines fast enough.

The key here is routine maintenance, greasing these points every oil change is a rule of thumb. If that doesn't seem to be often enough for your environment then you shorten the interval between greasings. The fact that you had "very runny rust colored grease" coming out of it tells me that you need to grease it more often. If on a trail ride you cross deep water or mud, you should re-grease the entire chassis as soon as you can. Someone who never leaves the pavement may be able to get away with greasing as little as once a year, everyone's mileage varies.

bryontro

Put a few miles on the truck since I greased the drive shaft and it looks as though that was in fact the problem. I only have 7k miles on it so I was surprised that it needed lube so soon. Must have not been lubed enough when I bought it. Everything else seems to be working as advertised. Thanks for the help.

Shane

The chassis should be lubed every oil change, which basically means every 3-5000 miles or so whether or not you actually change the oil.

ofrance

Hello there,

I posted a few weeks ago about this same problem in my '98 tacoma 4x4 102K miles. I have even taken it to the dealer, who replaced the tranny (under warranty). I didn't explain myself well enough I guess, cause i didn't get any info on lubing my drive line.

I want to thank you guys for helping me solve this prob. I've been driving for 20K miles (most highway) with this consistent thump when I leave/approach a stop light.

I started greasing the rear slip joint first and put between 2 and 3 oz. of moly-fortified grease NLGI #2 rated. I couldn't find the exact stuff mentioned in a previous post. The slip joint itself started explanding/creaking like the drive line was lengthening. A previous post explained that grease should start coming out, but I was reluctant to keep putting grease in for fear of over-doing it. The u-joints took about 1 pump before grease started coming out of the seals.

Is it alright to keep putting grease into the slipjoint until it comes out? Anyone know the capacity of that joint? Is the front slipjoint any different, cause i couldn't get any grease to come out either.

I hope everyone out there knows about this maintenance issue cause I sure didn't. I don't yet have the maint. manual, but think i should definately run out and get one, any favorites?

Thanks again for potentialy saving me a headache in the future,

oZ
'98 tacoma xtracab 4x4 102K, e-locker