U-joint problems

[Tom Howland]

My wife and I went for a drive last Sunday. She hadn’t put her earplugs in yet while driving down the street. I always get mine in quickly because I don’t want to ruin my already bad hearing. She says, “what’s that scraping sound.” I take out my plugs and can hear a little bit of it before it stops. I think brake pads. We drive about 40 miles. Coming close to home I take out my plugs and at slow speeds I can hear a light scraping. I try the brakes and the noise seems to go away.
That night at home I put the car up on the lift and check it out. The brake pads are in great shape. The emergency pads are good. I hand turn the tires and watch the all the u-joints rotate. I can’t make the scraping noise happen.
Last night after thinking about it all week I check it out again. There it is, the u-joint closest to the trans has a split rubber cover.



I take the drive shaft out and take the u-joint apart. The needle bearings have turned to dust. I am so amazed it held together.



On close inspection I notice there is no grease in the cup or on the bearings or in the hole of the of the cross. The other 3 posts on the cross are well greased. I ran a wire through the cross in both directions and there is no blockage.



I had all new u-joints installed 19,800 miles ago, in September 2003. I can’t believe the u-joint lasted this long without grease.



I change the oil and lube all the fittings every 3000 miles. That u-joint is the hardest to reach and I skip it every other time. I stop lubing when I see one of the cups oozing grease.
I’m thinking that rubber cover was so tight it wouldn’t let air release when greasing, thus not allowing the grease to flow to the cup. Should I burp each rubber cover with a miniature screwdriver? I don’t want to ruin the rubber cover. I should also remove my earplugs once and a while to hear what’s going on.

[Jerry Clayton]

Put in USA made Spicer SPL joints and forget them---good for 100k miles or more

Jerry

[FST FOX]

I have the same style U joints, might change to self contained when it's time but for now just enjoying the car when I get a chance between rain storms

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Tom Howland

I stop lubing when I see one of the cups oozing grease.

That's a big mistake. You have to purge all four posts. Proper U-joint greasing is a big deal. Such a big deal (IMO) that I set up this Spicer streaming video on one of my servers that shows everyone the proper way to do it. A U-Joint going out can be horrific. Proper maintenance is easy. Here you go: http://ujoint.kickme.to

[FST FOX]

excellent video

[patrickt]

Use quality grease (which can be hard to find sometimes), such as this:

[FST FOX]

where would you be able to find such grease in a small container, I have a small gun for easy acess to the driveshaft

[Traveller]

Originally Posted by FST FOX

....I have a small gun...

I believe personal problems such as this should be posted in the Lounge forum.

[FST FOX]

Originally Posted by Traveller

I believe personal problems such as this should be posted in the Lounge forum.

I thought someone might own me on that comment after I looked at it when it was posted

[Tom Howland]

Patrickt,
Excellent video! That’s exactly what I wasn’t doing, purging all 4 posts.
Thanks

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by FST FOX

where would you be able to find such grease in a small container

Schaeffer's can be hard to find. But there are other greases that are high quality. Here's the definitive forum on grease: http://theoildrop.server101.com/foru...rd=UBB2&page=0 One place that might have a small thing of Schaeffer's for you is American Racing Supply in Las Vegas. Drop them an email at info@americanracingsupply.com and if they don't respond then call them on the phone at 702-382-8520.