Although I had heard of it happening to others, I never had an issue. That is, until this weekend's run. The rear axle flexed to the point where the grease fitting on the rear driveshaft slammed into the gas tank skid plate, and eventually sheared off. It was doing a pretty good job making a nice notch in the skid plate, but the plate eventually won out. This happened to both myself and Mike (SMR4runner), both of us were running the OME HD springs in the back, FWIW, and both had a little less weight in the back than we normally do. Anyhoo, are the zerk fittings a standard size? I've already picked up an easy-out to get the remainder of the fitting out, but need to pick up a replacement someplace.

 

They are standard 6mm fittings, get a few allen set screws and put one of those in. When you need to lube the shaft, pull the allen and install the zerk.

 

Thanks Bruce- you read my mind about the allen set screws!