Universal Joint Question, Please.

Today I was doing maintenance on my '05 Taco DCSB 4x4 that will roll over 100,000 miles in a few weeks and I was up under it checking and lubing. The main drive shaft u-joints don't have grease zerks but I was giving them a close inspection, looking for excessive play, etc.

I noticed a line of grease slung out onto the bottom of the floor pan from the front u-joint of the main drive shaft. Again, this is a factory sealed u-joint with no grease fitting. There wasn't any excess play in the joint yet, and the other two joints in that shaft looked just fine, but I'm getting ready to make a 3,000 mile trip in that truck next month. I wonder if I ought to go ahead and replace the u-joints in that main shaft since it's obvious that the front joint is at least somewhat low of grease or may even be dry. I sure don't want to be stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota or Wyoming.

What do y'all think?

 

Are you sure it was grease from the U-Joint, or could it be gear oil from the transfer case?

 

I'm pretty sure all 4x4 Tacomas came with zerk fittings from the factory

Edit: Take a look at this thread

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/56976-greasing-entire-drive-shaft-u-joints-5-zerks-total.html

 

4x4s have zerks, PreRunners don't

 

Boy do I ever feel like a moron. Thanks for that post Kirk. It's been a LOOONG day. I got my flashlight and went back out and crawled back under my Taco, felt around and found the zerks, pointing straight up. I'm not used to seeing zerks in the ends of the spider legs like that. I had initially looked for them in between the legs and on the faces of the spiders (like they are on the front drive shaft). Didn't think to look on the end of the legs.

Got the grease gun back out and pumped 'em full of Lucas Red & Sticky #2. Good stuff there, man.

Thanks Y'all. I guess this is like Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say: "NEVERMIND!!"

 

Glad to hear you got it all straightened out!

 

As far as I know the Prerunners have the same drive line as a 4X4 with the exception of the front drive axles and transfer case. Regardless due to another thread I checked mine today and found that my 2012 Prerunner / SR5 has zerks on all of the drive shaft U Joints.