aowRS

Is grease now being ejected from the zerk fitting hole?

Andreas

4RUNR

I took it all out. It is now relying just on the grease coating on the splines.

swerks

how often are you planning on greasing those splines??

swerks

I have removed the zerk fitting from my drive shaft and the clunk is all gone. I plan on drilling out an old fitting and installing it, just to give some small amount of protection from contamination. any one else trying this??

4RUNR

To be honest? If I had something better to do then probably never. I just don’t see it failing or degrading in any way in the environment I drive.

But it’s a nice physical exercise to get it off then back on, plus Toyota says to tighten the driveshaft bolts regularly anyway, so probably every other oil change.

aowRS

This may sound very hokey, but what about taking an old bicycle innertube and neatly cutting a 1" wide strip. Take the grease fitting off, then undo the U-joint. Stretch the innertube piece over the hole left by the zerk fitting.

Now the threaded hole is protected from the elements. When the shaft compresses enough to cause pressure or the need to expel grease, the rubber innertube will give.

Any thoughts? This could be another fantastic AndyMod.....

Andreas

4RUNR

Very McGyverish. I suppose if you were diagnosed with a severe case of obsessive compulsive then it might serve both as temporary relief and a good dust shield.

aowRS

Could work though, huh?



Andreas

2ToyGuy

Just to throw in my $0.02:
Has anyone thought about these points...
1)Toyota has some darn fine engineers working for them, as witness the amazing relaibility of these vehicles over all. I'd put money on them being a good deal smarter than I. Of course, I'd put money on a hamster being smarter than I at times...
2) They designed the slip yokes the way they did for a reason.
3) When the gap at the end of the slip yoke is full of grease, there is no air pocket (in theory, anyway) to compress and clunk, or whatever.
4) Since grease, like any liquid (thick tho it may be) is non-compressable, when the yoke compresses, the grease in the gap has to go somewhere.
5) That somewhere has to be down the splines, unless they're totally clogged with nastiness. Then the plug or zerk blows out as a safety feature, to keep something more important from failing catastrophically when under weigh.
6) Toyota engineers designed it thus so that, when properly filled with grease, every time the yoke compresses, it lubes it's self, and when it expands back out, it sucks that excess grease back into the pocket at the end, to be used nest time.

Over time, of course, some of the grease will be expelled, as the driveshaft spins, etc. So, it needs to be lubed, or refilled, every so often.

Just my thoughts on the whole issue. Mine doesn't clunk, clank, or make any other sound of any kind, even when hitting speed bumps at a reasonable velocity. Or even an unreasonable one. I also lube the driveline every time I do the oil change thing, or about every 3k-ish.

4RUNR

2ToyGuy, this might surprise you, but our 4Runner are very different. And that even includes the driveshaft design. But even if that wasn’t the case your mileage may vary, as they say. You have no clunk, I had clunk.

Toyota engineers are certainly a smart bunch of folks, but I’m sure they didn’t design for all 3 seals, that hold rear differential oil in place, to fail so often on 3rd Gens. The engineers themselves admit they are not perfect by issuing recalls and bulletins for certain things, so your logic is just a bit flawed.

2ToyGuy

Ok, I was just wondering. It seemed to make sense to me at teh time, but I'm gettting a little tired, so the hamster is pulling ahead fast...

Yotadawgjr

Old thread I know!

Wondering what you guys think of keeping the slip yoke completely open... I've lost my cap and am having no luck finding a replacement. I thought I'd get my mechanic to pull it every other oil change and get him to grease the splines. It's only a few bolts so I imagine he wouldn't charge me too much to do it.

Malcolm99

If the cap has been missing for awhile there could be some wear that took place due to debris getting on the spline and contaminating the grease, go to the wrecking yard, undue 4 bolts slip it off and then due the same to your slip section on your drive shaft and it will be done, remove the grease fitting to make it easier to slip back on, very easy fix, good time to do the rear joint since it is most common to fail. Slip joints only require 1 pump of grease every 6 months to a year, if you fill it, it will push the plug out the back of the shaft or crack your t-case in sever situations.