When to Grease?

awesome, thanks. gonna do this once the rain stops

 

Usually one at each spider yolk (both drivelines) and 1 on the slip joint on the rear. Get a molybdenum grease as it sticks and doesn't fly around as easy and mess up your undercarriage. Real inexpensive and easy to do- and while you are under there its easy to look around and see if anything is not kosher.

 

4x4 Tacoma's have 5 grease points (zerks) - 3 on the rear drive-shaft at each u joint and 2 on the front drive-shaft at the u joints. No zerks at the slip yokes - u joints only.

2wd Tacoma's, including Pre Runners, have no grease zerks.

 

Just so I get this right - Exactly how many Grease fittings are there at each joint - front, middle and back on my truck ? (see spec below)



Thanks

 

I need to do this, thanks for the info everyone!!

 

Bump because this thread has pics

 

When it is new as there is not much in there from factory and then every oil change at 5,000 miles.That is what the book calls for.5,000 miles. If you run in a lot of winter weather every 2,500 miles would be good.Takes less than 5 minutes.

 

I grease after every oil change too with Valvoline synthetic grease. Kind of a habit to grease often since I'm always greasing the tractors

 

Grease points are not well labeled.

I've always used moly chassis grease, the freebie tubes (StaLube I think) that come in the grease gun package, and have never had a problem with any u-joint, ball joint or tie rod end. Just keep it lubed and it will not fail so I would not waste money on expensive synthetic greases as they don't return value IMO.

 

These shafts are off of a TRD Off Road.

The main shaft has the zerks on the outside of the U-Joint and they all point the same way. If you found one, you found them all.
The front shaft has the zerks on the face of the U-joint so they are harder to see. They are also installed from the factory in the same orientation.
My truck doesn't have the rear sliding yoke, the front one is sealed w/o a grease fitting.

 

I'm at 86,000 miles and never greased..

I'm noticing a ticking sound now, so i'm up for this.

 

Grease every time you change the oil - U R under there anyway - no-brainer

 

"Stringfellow" I liked that show!

YEP!

 

You're probably going to have to load some new u-joints into your grease gun before pumping the handle. AKA, grease won't fix worn and corroded u-joints.

 

Very good information in this thread!!! This ought to be stickied.

 

Don't overfill them. Once you break the "seal" it will want to continue out that path. Especially for the ball joint boots on the steering. You can watch them fill. Full but not bulging. For the driveshafts, once you see grease beginning to creep out then stop. Unless you've neglected them. Then you should try and get as much new grease in without making too much of a mess. If you do end up pushing a lot of grease out, make sure you wipe it all up. Otherwise it will get slung underneath and you'll get to clean it the next time you're under there.

 

Every oil change. Ujoints will last SO along if you keep them full of fresh grease.

Every couple weeks if you wheel a lot

Every day if you go through a lot of water(flood conditions).

 

If you've got a new truck, maintenance is covered for the first two years. OP, is that not the case in Canada?

 

I wouldn't trust the dealer unless you have a friend there that will really take care of you.

My rear driveshaft ujoints started squeeking on my 2914 after a few weeks. They were pretty dry. They didn't spend the few minutes during the PDI to grease the ujoints. Shit is sad. Wasn't expecting that. I greased them myself as I do on my other taco.

 

dealer maintence is oil and filter and tire rotation... nothing more.

That stated its easy to lube the u joints, just did all 5 on my taco... they were all rather dry, so i slowly pushed grease into em till i got a significant amount of the stock crap grease out. Being careful not to push to much grease in too fast to pop the seals off the u joint caps.