u-joint zerks missing?

Took delivery of 2017 SR5 Access cab 4×4 . Checked u-joints and discovered that there was no way to grease them. Has anyone run into this?

 

Ill answer temporarily until someone who knows for sure with the 3rd gens can chime in but I know a lot of the 2nd gens came with U joints that do not have zerks. That being said mine lasted a very long time, assuming the original owner didn't change the U joints which I don't think he did they lasted like 170,000 miles and then I replaced them with some U joints with zerks when they were starting to go bad.

But I did think that 3rd gens came with a U joints with zerks, could be only with certain packages like 4x4

 

Lots of threads on this. Rear drive shafts are sealed on the 2017s and some late 16s. Fronts should have (2) zerks, one under the heat shield where the exhaust crossed under. Most have been dry except what's in the needles.

 

Thanks for the information. I read that a number of 16's were sent out dry so I decided to check mine and was surprised to see no zerks.

 

Most of the latest models have the front drive shaft zirks and MAYBE a middle one that is under a shield. I have 5 on my truck but its build date was before all the problems started apparently. Early as in 9/15 build date... my u-joints all took 10 or more pumps before anything came out @ >1K miles.

 

Ok, I was just under my truck to lube mine up and only the front two had zerks, the rest have nadda.....sealed.

 

For anyone curious, it looks like the u-joints changed production in March, 2016.

Jeff

 

Is this based on part number? Data on this forum suggests a switch in June 2016. Maybe it took 3 months to run through what was in the parts bin.

OA

 

My truck was made at the very end of May and it has greasable joints on both drive shafts.

It really bothers me that the slip yoke isn't greasable, however. I've been thinking about adding one.

 

Mine has zerks all around and it was made middle of May. I will not be greasing mine so well see how long they last!

 

Why choose not to grease them? My truck was made the same month and each zerk took 10-12 pumps before it started purging any grease. That's not a little short, that's bone dry.

 

It's a 39 month lease with full warranty.

 

Most new trucks don't have grease fittings. The manufacturer has to pay an EPA penalty on each fitting

 

EPA = Another worthless Govt agency!!

 

Aren't most of them

 

Yes sir!! Sure are....

 

It was based on the parts catalog. Toyota doesn't typically have any parts for production waiting around for 3 weeks, nevermind 3 months though. Unless it was at the supplier.

Who knows.

Jeff

 

My December 2015 build has zerks everywhere.. sorry to hear they stopped building them without. I have already greased mine twice and I have 12k miles

 

ok so i have a build date 6/16

i'm 27 and u till now have neaver heard of the word/term zerk at all.

i'm literally under my truck now and can only find one near the rear towards the tranny, 1 in the middle of drive shaft near the carrier bearing and 1 in the rear near the rear diff.

is that right that there's only 3 total at each conetcton point of the drive shaft?

front:
middle:
rear: