Risk of overpacking driveshaft with grease

Hmm, be curious to see if this is common on the late model 2nd gens and carried over to the 3rd. Interesting!

I can tell you the 13's have em. As I just did mine this last oil change

 

correct, I am guessing thats to fill the void so condensation doesnt become a problem

 

I always assumed all 2nd gens had zerk fittings. My 13 has them and mechanically it should be the exact same as a 2015.

 

I would speculate you are correct. Now the issue we have, with these large sealed bearings, when we add grease to them to fill the void, it causes them to have a lot of resistance and we have current drop outs like crazy, too much resistance for the motor. We actually have had to clean one out and oil it to get it to bring the resistance back down. We have found you cant pack the void full. But our bearings are 4ft in diameter, slowly moving the giant 100+ton load

 

I have seen quite a few of the 2016 member mentioned that they have zerks on their u joints. I wonder if it was a change for the last few years of the 2nd gen

 

Good info thanks. Any risk water gets splashed up inside the bearing cap of a properly greased U-joint?

 

2014 here and I have 5 zerk fittings front to rear.

 

Not in my experience (farm equipment mechanic and service manager). I slide around under my truck on a creeper after doing an oil change, and I hit each zerk with a couple pumps.

 

On second gens 4x4s have zerks, 2 wheel drives including prerunners do not. I don't know why.

Edit: I'm not sure about 2015s, but 2005-2014 4x4s have zerks.

 

everyone is over analyzing this a bit. Just squeeze about 7-8 pumps of grease in and your fine. if the u-joints dont need that much, it will squeeze out. A slip yoke will be fine with it. Then go drive the truck and be happy

 

Try searching google with "tacomaworld greasable slip joint drive shaft" or some combination of those keywords.

 

no way

you must be the exception

if you have a 4x4 there are 5

 

Well I'd say you're a pretty good reference then!
Q for you. When I pump grease in the U joint, the old grease starts coming out of the corners, following by the new grease, then I stop knowing the old grease was displaced. But on some U joints, grease does not ooze out from all 4 corners, just 3, sometimes 2, not matter how much new grease I pump into the zerk.

Is there an obstruction?

 

Slip yoke doesn't have a zerk on my 2006. PITA.

 

None of the 2nd gens do. Had to get my entire driveshaft replaced at 35K because the Slip yoke was under-greased from the factory and it started making a thud when I was accelerating and braking. The under greasing wouldn't have been an issue if there was a way to easily refill it without pulling the driveshaft and rear dif apart. It was covered under the 60k power-train warranty.

 

Confirmation to confirmation.

https://www.google.com/search?q=how...mobile&ie=UTF-8#q=how+much+to+grease+u+joints

 

It's probably following the path of least resistance (past a grease seal on the caps). See the photos below of a cross/bearing assembly (u-joint) from a piece of equipment we sell at work. There's really no room for an issue with an obstruction. I wouldn't investigate it any further if it were my truck. If you're really concerned about it, you could SAFELY rotate the drive shaft by driving forward a bit, then reapplying the parking break, and try another 1/2 pump of grease.

 

Got it. I can see how grease would follow the path of least resistance. How do you ensure all four branches of the cross are properly greased?

 

Ahahaha I love this guy.

 

If any thread needed locked it's this one.