U-joints Not lubed - reply from Toyota Care

You truly believe that there was enough friction from oem lubricated u-joints that your greasing reduced drive train drag enough to increase 2 mpg?

If that was true your u-joints would have self destructed after a few miles from such a gross drag. There simply isn't that much friction reduction possible.

Smoother shifting?

 

For what it's worth, my taco was built 3/11 in texas. I checked the u joints yesterday. Old grease started purging out with the first pump on all, so they were definitely all full.

Paint was still on all zerk fittings too.

 

good then the issue was probably addressed... hopefully

 

Exercising the seals by purging with fresh grease is actually good. "Clogged" seals are not good. Grease guns are extremely high pressure. Just cos it seeps with a grease gun does not mean it will leak or let anything in at the much lower pressure of normal service.

Dana spicer clearly states to purge all 4 seals until fresh grease appears. I would follow the mfr's recommendation.

http://www2.dana.com/pdf/DSSM-3264.pdf
http://www2.dana.com/pdf/J3299-2-DSSP.PDF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-fvddVt-g

 

^^^ that yup just sayin... next tank of gas and the next after that and on...

I'm @ 17.5mpg for the last 4 tanks of gas, before that I was lucky to get into the 15's. Not the only change tho, I had my 5K service done a few days before I lubed the truck, they topped off the fluids!!

 

well that certainly ends the debate, lol, good job @renau001

 

I wouldn't hire an automotive engineer to build my airplane. The same as I wouldn't hire an automotive mechanic to fix it. Vice versa applies.

 

gotta show some ignore love

 

Well, I haven't been in the forum world long, but I haven't seen a debate ended yet

 

yea, even when you posted irrefutable evidence of how and why, still it goes on....oh well

 

It's a u-joint, aerospace engineers and automotive engineers don't design them, it's a common device across many industries. I grease u-joints on bottling and canning lines by the best practice as described which is until grease comes out all 4 sides.

What are you going on about?

 

Never said they did.

 

What you going on about?

 

your mom

 

Oh, thought you had something important to add, the way you were typing. Nope.

 

Is there a way to permanently ignore someone or would I have to ignore them in each thread?

 

Lets get this thread locked. I understand the u-joint seals and how purging is good now, Smitty99 has nothing more to add, OP has his truck lubed properly, Toyota is aware they have production line issues.

 

Exactly what the Toyota technician told me.

 

Agreed that there is some grease in there, that doesn't mean it's not supposed to be filled during assembly.

Per the spicer manual on u-joint spiders that I posted a link to in the above post:

Spicer replacement universal joint kits contain only enough grease to provide needle bearing protection during storage. It is therefore necessary to completely lubricate each journal cross and bearing assembly prior to assembly into the driveshaft yokes. Each journal cross lube reservoir should be fully packed with a grease as recommended in Chart 4. Each bearing assembly should also be wiped with the same grease, filling all the cavities between the rollers and applying a liberal grease coating on the bottom of each bearing cap. After the kits are installed into the driveshaft yokes and prior to placing into service, relube as follows:

1. Using the proper lubricant, purge all four bearing seals of each U-joint. This flushes abrasive contaminants from each bearing and assures all four bearings are filled properly. *Purge the seals. Spicer seals are made to be purged.

 

Dang my first post to TW and we are on the "lock the thread" already...

^^^^ That was the point of this thread - thank you!

The way MY TRUCK was delivered to ME was the u-joints had Assembly grease ONLY as evidenced when I pumped 10+ pumps of grease from my grease gun/each u-joint. What little grease that purged and it was very little old assembly grease not lube.

Sooooo I contacted Toyota, they confirmed the u-joints should be lubed at the factory. That was not happening so I wanted to let folks know they were working out the production kinks and we all should check the u-joints so that MAY help with some of the drive-line issues a lot of folks are reporting like blown rear ends and transmission rough shifting and the like.

It was a REMINDER really as this was talked about in an earlier thread all covered a few months ago.

My truck has a production date of 08/2015 so an early build first wave roll out. Workin out the kinks.