Grease your zerks!!!!

In theory yes.

When they went to "lube for life" joints, the bean counters made a calculated guess that over the life of a vehicle, it is more cost effective to make them sealed rather than run the risk of improper service.

A bit of advice to others that have grease oozing out of the coupler is to first clean off the fitting first and depress the ball with a small awl or pick tool a couple of times. The detent ball sometime gets stuck and will not allow the grease to go into the fitting.

 

If you get under the truck and start greasing...Have a drop light or a flashlight handy, and while looking at your u-joint, pump until you see grease. Hell, its only 4 inches square, you cant miss the grease when it comes out.

You will usually hear a pop first, then the next pump you will see the old grease come out of the ends.

Good luck...Probably one of the easiest things you can do to your truck.

 

or the steel ball sometimes doesn't spring back and shut close allowing the grease to all come shooting out

 

Replacement zerks are cheap.

 

Okay, without having to read all of it I have a few questions?

About how many zerk fittings are under my truck? (09 4x4 DC)

Can you hurt anything by doing this? What I mean is there anything that can go wrong when doing this?

Thanks

 

No no no...you gotta read the whole
thread, and this is recommend maintenance, no your not going to hurt, 5 zerks

 

Its super easy...Only thing you can hurt is your head if you bump it on the drive shaft...

Wal-Mart grease gun - 12 bucks....
Tube of grease - 3-4 bucks

Its worth it to get a flexible hose for about 2 bucks....replace the solid one with the flex hose....remove the end from the solid piece and add it to the flex one. see this pic...

The black hose didnt come with my gun, i had to get it extra....And you have to transfer the piece connected to the drive shaft on to the new black hose.

Hope that makes sense. With this gun, you can feel a click when the gun is properly attached...then give it 3-4 pumps until the grease comes out of the ujoint. Trust me, you will see it POP out.

 

I think I'm still winning with 9 zerks haha...

 

Thanks you all! My dad has a grease gun and is a zerk king but just never thought of doing my 09. I will do them this weekend and report back on how they were. I will be looking for 5 I guess.

 

In this Thread somewhere it states that the Drive shaft can be turned by hand in order to access the zerks easily - what position would the Gear shifter have to be in for this to be possible ???

 

The front shaft can be turned in Park if not in FWD. The rear shaft can't be turned with the rear wheels on the ground. However, you just need to glance under there to know whether or not you have to move your truck a few inches.

 

Try putting the gear shift in Neutral. This works on most vehicles I've owned.

 

is that counting the zerks on the front and rear brakes? If not then damn 13 zerks.

 

LOL, best not try to grease those.

I get a kick out of this thread. It takes about five minutes tops to grease the drivetrain on a second generation Tacoma. If you want some real experience go work harvest sometime and lube a few combines.

 

I hear ya!! but have to admit a couple of those zerks are a pain in the A$$ to connect to. Doc

 

Okay, just got back from my dad's house. We greased the 5 zerks and each one took two pumps from the gun.

While under there we also found a nail in my passenger side rear tire.

 

greased the zerks finally! the grease that came out was very black, but i feel better now that it is all done and by me.

 

well i have the most with a 2wd. so im winning in the 2wd category lol

 

Crom

Great pics there thks. Your truck is so clean underneath, it looks Brand New, Thanks for the reminder to grease the truck even though it has less then 5000 KM's on its still a good idea.

 

on my 1st gen, mine were sealed. didn't have to mess with them. surprised to hear they're not on the 2nd gen.