No zerks in the stock U-joints?

This past weekend I went under my 2009 Tacoma to grease what ever I could grease and found no fittings. Is this normal? My 2 wheel drive has a split drive shaft with three u-joints and no fittings.

 

IIRC, the prerunners don't have them. 4WD and maybe some of the 5-lugs do.

 

It could have the non - serviceable ujoints which don't have any grease fittings.

 

Pretty much everything is "permanently lubricated" in sealed non-servicable fasion on all modern vehicles.

The plus side of this is less maintenance, and for poorly maintained vehicles probably a longer component life.

Downside is shorter component life over a maintainable (regreasable) component.

Anyway - everything is moving towards "maintenance free" designs. Battery, UCA, etc.

Bicycles started using sealed bearing packs about 20 years ago. Before that a properly maintained bicycle could last a lifetime. Ahhh progress.

 

Yeah. I didn't find a single fitting anywhere.

 

did you make sure it is not positioned on the top side?
move the truck just a wee bit (just put it in neutral and roll it a little) then check again.

 

I used my hands to feel around and an inspection mirror. On all three.

 

I had to replace mine around 80,000 miles. I replaced with ones with grease zerks. Thanks for reminding me to give them a shot of grease.

 

Correct. That kind of pisses me off that there are NONE on the pre-runner. However, my wife's Tahoe has 11 zerk fitting and none are on the U-joints...