Need help with putting slip yoke back in!

Hey guys, so I pulled the slip yoke apart to apply ford XG-8 grease for the common slip yoke thud. Everything went smooth but now I cant get the thing to slide back together for some reason. I made alignment marks with a paint pen before hand to make sure I aligned it back the same way it came apart. Anyone have any tips for getting it to slide back together? It only goes like 1/4" in and then stops and wont go any further.

 

Nothing looks nicked or anything causing it to stop?

 

No I cleaned everything with brake parts cleaner and inspected everything very well. It came apart super easy

 

Too much grease causing a seal and you are trying to compress the trapped air in the yoke or compress the grease????? That's all I got. Seems really random and weird, without hands on it really hard to say and give any good input as to a solution.

 

Ya I cant figure it out. I didnt notice a master spline but maybe there is one?

 

Possibly I have never taken mine apart to know.

 

Look for the flat spot and line it up. I think it's called an index tooth? It only goes on one way . If all your markings were correct it should line up.

 

Flat spot on the Male or female end?

 

Nothing??

 

Should be a groove that lines up on both parts.

 

There is no groove, even spaced splines on the shaft. The yoke has 2 wider grooves cut out 180 degrees from each other in the female end tho.

 

You can see where it stops from the grease build up on the Male end

 

Too much grease? You might be trying to compress grease as it slides in.

 

Your right, sorry about that. It's only on the female end. They can be touchy to line up. You just have to finesse it around until it slides in.

 

I just got it. There is a small and I mean very small change in depth between 2 spline teeth that have to be lined up with the larger gap in the female end. No body online explains this so dont forget if you do yours. Could have saved me an hour

 

I do know that Napa auto has those light weight crimp clamps for the boot. Toyota doesn't sell them.

 

How often should the slip joint be taken apart, cleaned, greased?

I grease all the u joint zerks every oil change but haven't touched the slip joint.

 

No set maintenance on it. I did mine when I felt the clunk and knew everything else was lubed, around 70K. It's a crying shame there is no grease fitting on it. Toyota doesn't even have the proper lube, or the clamps to put back on the boot. Ya gotta use the stuff from Ford. The lifetime factory lubrication is a joke.

 

It only goes in one way just keep rotating it