Greased drive shaft today

i have never greased my 2017 OR DCSB before until it reaches 30k now. Learned from this forum and bought grease gun and grease. There are only 2 zerks so it’s pretty straightforward, although the grease gun’s nozzle was difficult to remove after greasing due to the narrow space in the U-joint. I pumped probably 7-10 times until I pushed out the old black grease. Unlike someone mentioned before that they were bone dry, there seemed too have plenty of old dirty grease. Although there’s an opinion that we should stop right after seeing the old grease coming out, I prefer to replace all the old grease. It’s not the slip yoke anyway so it won’t bring too much pressure. I plan to grease it at every oil change so it won’t dry out.

 

One thing to note, is that black grease you purge from the U-Joint is black to begin with. It’s some supper tacky and extremely slippery stuff they place in there at the factory.

I’m a bit of a grease guru due to my profession, which requires 12 different greases to do my job properly, and I have never found anything quite like that stock black u-joint grease. So tacky, yet so slippery! If I could get my hands on a tube of it, that’s what I would pump in there.

 

The owners manual does recommend a Lithium base chassis grease, NLGI No.2.

 

Not some molly concoction?

 

What grease would you recommend?

 

I went with the manual’s recommended NLGI 2 Lithium. In my case, some Lubriplate brand grease I had around that I know to be good stuff. I agree with the OPs choice, and the other suggestions here from what is available on the store shelf. However, I would prefer that black tacky grease they came with, if I could find it. It doesn’t appear, to my eyes, to be a moly or graphite grease (both typically black in colour). I thinks it’s something else altogether.

 

Jetlube?

 

From this day forth you shall be known as....
The Grease Guru.

 

I am not familiar with that product line.

 

I knew I would regret having typed that. I think I still need to earn the title in terms of U-Joints.

 

I guess it would be hard to argue against the genuine Spicer product. Though it is pricey:

https://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/sdh-spl1051/overview/




Some good info on intervals:

https://spicerparts.com/resources/lube-torque-specs



I think, at the end of the day, purging your U-joints on some sort of interval, and using the recommended grease rating (NLGI 2 Lithium) would be much more important than the actual grease brand or quality. The u joint bearings pivots have very limited movement unless you’ve jacked your truck way up.

 

I wonder if you can order the OEM black tacky grease straight from the dealership?

 

Being that my dealer cannot even source me the Toyota LF transfer case fluid, I’m thinking probably no. I am not sure who makes the u-joints for Toyota. That would be the place to look for it, I think, as a start.

Does anyone know who is the vendor for the Tacoma u-joints? Is it Toyota themselves, Spicer, Borg Warner, others?

 

. For later

 

Some good info from this old thread. It quotes the Timken test number, which I was happy to find my random choice of Lubriplate 1552 NLGI 2 Lithium passed (50lbs minimum is required and Lubriplate 1552 is rated 60lbs Timken).

 

@gunny1005 Worth a try. He may know.

Also..... @Stocklocker aka Grease Guru
Super Lube? Like it or hate it?

 

Ahhh man....I gotta live up to this now.....

FYI: I know a bit about grease but am not an auto mechanic, so am no expert on u-joint greasing. My expertise in greases is in the overhaul of very large industrial circuit breakers and high voltage switching equipment like you might find in a substation. Greases in these applications are incredibly specific, as they directly affect the critical speeds that mechanisms operate at when a breaker trips offline, the cold weather characteristics for outdoor equipment, and also the stability of the product in strong magnetic fields. A typical overhaul may take 2-4 types of grease to be done properly, and each breaker manufacturer has their own spec for each grease type.

Most of the greases used in the electrical manufacturing industry are simply automotive and aviation greases crossed-over or repackaged as “OEM”. I’ve had to source these out over the years and learned a lot in the process about what constitutes metallic and non-metallic base greases, and the properties of specific grades when trying to find an locally available substitute for equipment made in Russia or Brazil etc.

In regards to Super Lube: my grandad used that on his Massey Ferguson tractor, so it gets my vote.

 

I grinded the tip down a little, makes a big difference getting to those 2 front zerks

 

I ordered Valvoline synthetic Molly fortified lithium grease first but saw this thread then went to get the non-Molly lithium grease instead.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/drive-shafts-two-types-of-grease.429689/

 

When you smear molybdenum “moly” grease between your fingers, you can see the black metallic particles that make up the additive. Moly grease is opaque. The weird thing about the OEM grease that comes in the Taco joints from factory, is it is black in colour, but transparent when you smear it. It’s not moly grease from what I can tell, but I don’t know what it is.