Zerk Problems

So at nearly 80k miles, I finally decided it was time to grease the zerks. I understand it's well overdue, however I never took it seriously until just recently. Lately I've been feeling a bit of driveline shudder; nothing major, but enough that I realized something didn't feel right.

Anywho, fast forward to today. I grab my grease gun filled with Lucas Oil Red n Tacky #2, crawl under the truck, and see this:

Front


Mid


Rear


It isn't just dirt. I took a wet rag and tried to wipe it off, nothing. I tried scraping it with my fingernail, nothing. I haven't done more than that for fear of damaging it. They each look like they've been painted over with undercoating. I've never undercoated myself, nor have I taken the truck somewhere to be undercoated. The only place that could have would have been the dealership, maybe as a preventative measure before I bought it. Could they have been stupied enough to do this? Is there anyway to safely get it off? Am I screwed and just having to wait til my driveshaft fails? If it does can I hold the dealership responsible? Will I ever stop asking questions?

 

Looks like your zerks have never been touched. It's just the paint they used on the drive shaft when it was originally painted. Just take a screw driver and scrape til you see silver. Then depress the ball on the zerk with the screw driver to free it up so you can flow grease through it. Good luck

 

I agree with Doording that sounds like a good starting point good luck OP.

 

Thanks, I scraped it a bit and found the ball. I slipped the end of the gun over the fitting and squeezed the grease in. After a bit some of the grease was coming out from the side. I assume that means its full?

 

After trying again, I tightened the nozzle on the grease gun. I gave the gun a few more pumps, then took the gun off. I pushed the ball in and grease came oozing out. Now I assume THAT means its full?

 

When you see grease coming out all of the cups, then they are successfully lubricated.

 

OP, did it improve your drive line shutter after you greased?

 

Cup? Sorry, not hip to the lingo. You mean the nozzle of the grease gun?

Haven't tried yet. Once I'm done I'll take it for a spin and see

 

Grease will come out of each end of the u-joint. (4 spots)
Then it good to go.

 

Hi Rex

 

The cups are what covers each of the 4 ends of the U joint. They house the needle bearings. When you see grease flowing from all of them, then it's full. If you have grease flowing between the tip of the grease gun and the zerk, then the zerk ball is stuck, you have to unstuck it with a screw driver.

 

Howdy Keef... come grease my truck

Okay, think I got it. Found one zerk towards the front of the front driveshaft, one towards the front of the main d/s, one at the midpoint/knuckle, and one in front of the the rear diff. Miss any?

 

Yeah I guess model would've helped (derp) 2010 dcsb 4x4 sport

I'll keep checking around for info, I'm fairly confident I got them.

Thanks again all

Ps: after a quick ride, it feels a bit smoother. Could just be a placebo effect though.

 

I hit one zerk on each of the four driveshaft points I named earlier (front of front driveshaft, front of main d/s, midpoint, and rear end of main d/s); negative on the suspension greasing

And the flux capacitor is good as long as I maintain the 1.21 Gigawatts.

 

I have never seen any on the suspension components. There are 5 total on the drivetrain. There is a thread Crom did, but can't find it now. Here is one from Toyota nation that shows them.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/6...rease-fittings-2008-tacoma-4x4-trd-sport.html

 

Yes you have 5.You may have missed the rear zerk on front diff.it is located above a small shield held in place by 2 bolts.Remove the shield and you should see another zerk there.

 

If grease didn't come from all 4 caps you didn't properly lubricate your u-joint. If grease only came out the side of the grease gun tip by the zerk it didn't go into the joint.

 

You are welcome sir

 

I just tried to do mine. Out of the 5, 2 took the grease right away. I tried replacing the zerks on the other 3, but they still wouldn't take any grease. A 5 minute job ended up taking 3 hours, now I guess I'm going to just replace them all...

 

All of the U-joints. The previous owner said he regularly had them done, but that is obviously not the case (shame on me for believing and letting it go as long as I did).