New Year Lube Job

Happy New Year Yall.

Weather warmed up and I decided to perform a driveway lube job.

I was only able to locate 4 grease nipples on the driveline.

Here in the centre.
The other nipples were situated on top of these 3 joints. I was able to reach all 3 with the flexi hose grease gun. In the forums people mention 5 nipples/zerks but I only found 4 in total. Is there one missing on this 2013 4X4 Sport?

 

I commend you for performing the maint. task, but DAMN idk how you found any grease fittings on the underside of that thing.

 

I have 5 on my 13 sport. 3 rear u joints , 2 front u joints. Maybe someone changed one of ur u joints to a sealed non greasable type ? And yea 63 degrees here in Pittsburgh. Good day to wrench.

 

Yeah, she is slick with a dirty/greasy mixture of fluid film and road grime.

 

I do love living in the south!

 

The 5th zerk is a pain. Hard to find, hard to access. I don’t remember if I mark and drop the front half prop shaft just to get to it.

and there is a heat shield on one of them that may have to come out.

if I eventually get trans and xfer case skid that might make it even more fun

 

Guess i will climb back under and have another look. Its going to bother me missing that elusive 5th nipple. I need to hear that satisfying popping sound of the old grease and air being pushed through the seal.

 

I heard some have none or only half.
But if your truck is original and you’ve already found 4, then odds are there is a 5th hiding somewhere that’s hard to see.

if you can it will help to rotate the shaft at different angles with a flashlight to see.

so long as you don’t have the truck on the ground with e brake off in neutral to roll over your leg

 

Lured by title. Disappoint

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/drive-shaft-lube-points-2nd-gen-4wd.225161/
5 zerks

 

Seems like a bait and switch

 

Awesome. TY. Probably missing the one in-front of transfer case. I wont be losing sleep now. ;-)

 

I wonder if I've been missing the rears on my 2015..? The manual says "lube prop shaft" but I'm sure I've never found a grease fitting other than the front driveshaft..

 

@Hooligans Its possible, as someone else stated, that they replaced the U Joints with non greasable ones.

 

Note: I have the 4wd model so I have 5 zerk fittings due to the addition of the front drive-shaft. Your model might not have those two. See pictures for reference.

This is the rear drive-shaft forward zerk fitting. You might have to rotate your drive-shaft to see this one. This one is immediately aft of your transmission.


This one is the rear drive-shaft middle zerk fitting. It can be found just a little aft of your carrier bearing. It is inline with the other two zerk fittings on your rear drive-shaft, meaning that if you have access to your front fitting, you will have access to this one as well as the rear fitting.



Here is your rear drive-shaft aft zerk fitting.


Your front drive-shaft aft zerk fitting is found buried in the middle of the u-joint and not as easily accessible as your rear drive-shaft zerks. Hopefully you have a flexible grease-gun hose. You might need to remove the rock guard that my index finger is touching. See the last photo in this post for a wider shot of this rock-guard.


Your front drive-shaft forward fitting. It too is buried within the middle of the u-joint. You can see some grease I missed when I was cleaning up since my last venture down under my truck.


Here you can see a wider shot of the front drive-shaft rear zerk fitting. Notice its relation to my transfer case and here you can see the rock-guard in all its glory.



As for the grease I use, I use Lucas #2 Red and Tacky http://www.lucasoil.com/products/display_products.sd?iid=46&catid=14&loc=show&headTitle=%20-%20Red%20%27N%27%20Tacky%20Grease

I grease every time I drain my oil like others have stated. You will notice some grease fling out from the joint which is normal, just keep up regular maintenance and you'll be fine. Happy zerking!

-J