Tom Wood's Driveshaft Slip Yoke Greasing

To the point, for those of you that have a Tom Wood's driveshaft, consider separating and greasing the slip yoke on the driveshaft. Mine came with very little grease and after about 1K miles mine started to stick and cause felt "thuds" on stopping and accelerating from a stop. Removing the slip yoke and greasing completely solved the issue for me.

There are very similar threads for the stock driveshaft under searches for "slip yoke clunk" or "driveline clunk". It's not a new issue, but there wasn't a specific search result for Tom Wood's DS. To describe it, it felt as if there was something rolling around in the truck bed giving a thud on acceleration and another on coming to a complete stop. I thought maybe my trans was slipping a little. Fortunately this was an easy fix and took very little time.

Before you separate the slip yoke, reminder to mark both pieces so you can align them back in the same orientation. I believe they are balanced in the position you received them. I only needed to remove the lower flange. Torque spec for the bolts are 65 ft-lb when installing back.

Below is a picture of the slip yoke portion. The Blue is NOT grease. It's a paint of some sort. When I separated the slip yoke, it was pretty darn dry of grease inside and out. Moving the yoke back and forth in my hands felt sticky.

Tom Wood's does include a grease fitting for this slip yoke. When I removed the yoke, I attached my grease gun to the fitting and the grease only came out from one spot, near the edge/rim of the yoke, which seems a bit insufficient.

Anyway, created a thread just for this FYI.

 

Haven't experienced that but... I think I took it apart and greased it before I installed it. Thanks for the page and insight!

 

Just did mine again (OEM, not TW). Anyways I’m pretty sure I’ve read you need to use lithium based grease.

 

My issue returned a couple weeks after posting this thread. I had used a NLGI #2 Marine Grease thinking it would be fine.
I decided to order the Ford PTFE lubricant:

$40 Genuine Ford Fluid XG-8-A PTFE Lubricant - 1 lb.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BNVK5SM?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
This seemed more appropriate based on the review I read.
I've had it on for a week so far and the issue has not returned yet.
Anyway, just updating my thread.

 

I just use the Quicksilver (Mercury) grease with PTFE in the grease gun (large tube) or they have the small grease gun tubes and shoot the zerk and apply light amount on that exposed part of the shaft so works same without pulling apart. Use on the other u-joints also. Found when doing my Merc 150 prop shaft splines where prop attaches every 100 hours as had to pull off to drain the gear oil (yes boats get gear oil every 100 hours). Used several types of waterproof grease and the full syn type also on my boat trailer wheel bearing (red or blue or black) and they would melt out and make a mess.

$19 Quicksilver 802863Q1 2-4-C Marine Grease/Lubricant with PTFE - 14 Oz. Cartridge

Amazon.com: Quicksilver 802863Q1 2-4-C Marine Grease/Lubricant with PTFE, 14-Ounce Cartridge : Automotive

As a side comment if you have a shaft too long that slip yoke could jam at the end of where the splines are (blue in pic) so when installed about 1.5 inches or so of splines should be visible.
How much of my spline should be showing? – Tom Wood's Custom Drive Shafts (4xshaft.com)

 

Ever since switching to this Ford PTFE I haven't had my issue return. So it seems obvious now that that my original marine grease was inappropriate and to use a grease with PTFE in it. Maybe Tom Woods did use PTFE originally, but just not enough? Whatever the case, my recommendation would be to wipe off whatever it comes with and apply a generous amount of new PTFE grease. This will help avoid having to remove it later to address an issue like mine. Anyway, just an FYI for people switching to Tom Woods driveshafts...which has been amazing by the way.

 

I did research into this a while back when I had to service my OEM slip joint. It seemed the

$17 Ford XG-8 PTFE Lubricant - 3 oz.

Ford XG-8 compound and Loctite's LOC51048 Moly Paste were the go to choices. I opted for the moly paste at the time.

Some 18-20 months later I do have a slight 'driveline clunk' starting to happen on my truck. I need to take it back apart and confirm if thats the issue or not. Could be I used too little (was worried about 'hydrolocking' the joint), but it also could be something else all together like my worn out rear shock mounts.

As a side note Im surprised to see / never noticed that theres no boot over the TW slip joint.

 

I'm going to do this in the next few days to see if it resolves my cowbell noise >> https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bell-sound-shifting-from-reverse-to-drive.829577/

Question @Musubi3 to prepare: what is the process to separate the slip yoke? Will that be clear when I remove the DS? Is there a c clip? does it slide right out?

 

so for this high cost of it being made on a bench they’re not taking 5 seconds to put the right grease new

 

Hey Dave, before you slide the slip yoke out, make sure you mark the alignment of how the yoke went in. You'll need it to slide back in the same exact way/position. The DS was balanced just how it is from the shop. The slip yoke will slide out, but before sliding all the way out, there will be some resistance. Like a notch or something it needs to overcome. Overall, easy stuff. I've done this several times for various reasons.

I too just addressed my U-Joints. I replaced all of them. I was getting crunching and clicking from the destroyed needle bearings that I wasn't greasing often enough.
Also, if you ever take apart the double cardan joint, make sure those parts go back into the same position as well, as that is the way they were balanced.

 

Awesome -- thanks! I'll be sure to mark it. I did think Sunday when I was under there the bell resonated outward from that slip yoke so this makes sense. fingers crossed.

 

Well they aren’t making them anymore anyways

 

There’s a good post about greasing the slip joint.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/greasing-slip-joint-boot.357521/page-3#post-28639056