Lubing my drive shafts today, noticed that when I tried to lube the slip yoke on the rear drive shaft, I didn't see the slip yoke extend at all when pumping the grease in. Instead it started oozing grease from the inside the u-joint. Do I have a clog somewhere so the grease is not getting where it needs to go?

 

The slip yoke shouldn't extend when you're greasing it.. Grease won't lift the truck up.

 

It does on mine. A little bit, anyway.

 

never noticed it on mine....

 

Yeah, they do ever so slightly. Is it normal for it to push some grease out toward the inside of the u-joint though? I hadn't noticed that before.. maybe it's full already. Just was out in the woods recently and the creek crossings are flowing good and deep from snow runoff, figured I'd grease em up again.

 

Well this is weird. I was at the store today and in the parking lot hit a speed bump, when the rear wheels went over it, I heard a clunk. First thought that came to mind was my slip yoke, and that maybe it was stuck/sticking. Well, after the clunk, I got home, tried lubing it again and this time it extended with the grease like it should.

 

Yeah, always seen em extend before. All seems well now, guess that speed bump loosened it up. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

There is a cap on the yoke that holds the grease in. (on mine anyways) That cap can fall off as it did on one of mine in the past. It was then an opening that didn't hold any grease pressure so it wouldn't allow grease to travel up into the slip area when I greased it. Also allowed grit and contaminants to get in there.

 

Interesting.. wonder if my truck has/had one. Any idea where I might find a replacement? Or if anyone knows this parts name so I can try and locate one that way.

 

Yeah, be careful with that cap if you ever pull the slip joint apart. My '92 has one, but the '86 doesn't. So, one day a while back I decided to pull the joint apart on the '92 and the cap came apart. It's sort of fastened onto the end of the splines integrating into the splines. Don't know how else to really describe it. Needless to say, it was ruined and I to replaced the drive shaft with one that didn't have the cap.

I don't really what to suggest as far as servicing it. I do know that grease always comes out of the end (on both vehicles) into the u-joint as you've described. All my components work as they should, though, so I've considered it normal......hehe. Don't know how helpful anyone would be at a dealership, either. When I'd asked around about the "cap", everyone was clueless.

 

I suppose I'll just keep an eye/ear on things. It seems to be functioning normal now. I've seen that clueless look you speak of at the dealership before.. probably won't bother with them unless I have to...