Driveshaft Lubrication

[Dana_15]

While I was changing the oil today on my 4X4 DC I decided to lubricate the driveshafts. This truck is a little different from the previous generation Tundra for zerk location and amount of zerks. I use Mobil XHP222 grease for all applications.


The rear driveshaft has three zerks.

One close to the rear diffential





The center universal joint.





And the one where the drivshaft bolts to the transmission. This one was a pain because the truck had to moved to the zerk was accessable due to a skid plate






The front drivshaft has two and the one where it bolts to the transmission is a real pain to get the grease gun on. Thankfully the front drivshaft can be turned by hand, I had to face it almost straight up to get the gun on it.





And the final one






Add grease until you see come out of the joint, usually you can hear it also.

[Ricky Bobby]

I just bought some oil today, and gonna do the same thing tonight at work. Can you drop that small skid plate at the tranny to make it more accessible?

[mhadden]

Very nice. I'll include this with the maintenance articles.

This reminds me, I need to get some grease and a gun and do mine. My cheap gun busted

[Dana_15]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

I just bought some oil today, and gonna do the same thing tonight at work. Can you drop that small skid plate at the tranny to make it more accessible?

Yes. My garage has a slight incline so I just popped it into neutral and rolled it a foot or so, no problem.

Originally Posted by mhadden

Very nice. I'll include this with the maintenance articles.

This reminds me, I need to get some grease and a gun and do mine. My cheap gun busted

I was going to PM you about it, you beat me to it. Also I changed the oil to Mobil 1 0w-20...I'm getting 14.7 to the gallon and its almost all highway, hopefully it will help.

[mhadden]

Originally Posted by Dana_15

...I changed the oil to Mobil 1 0w-20...I'm getting 14.7 to the gallon and its almost all highway, hopefully it will help.

I'm thinking of going this route once my stockpile of 25 quarts is gone from my garage Shouldn't take long at 7 qrts a pop. I'm skeptical that the mileage will change any, especially since 5W20 thins down to a 0W20 or a 0W"15"!

[nikita]

Originally Posted by mhadden

I'm thinking of going this route once my stockpile of 25 quarts is gone from my garage Shouldn't take long at 7 qrts a pop. I'm skeptical that the mileage will change any, especially since 5W20 thins down to a 0W20 or a 0W"15"!

This is not 1970. I have not seen any used oil analysis reports that show modern 5W-20 not staying in grade for at least 7500 miles. All 5W-20's are at least semi-syn, even if the label doesnt say it and all 0W-anything are fully synthetic.

You are right that mileage wont change, because at operating temperature, SAE 20 is SAE 20, regardless of base oil chemistry or the W rating.

[mhadden]

Originally Posted by nikita

This is not 1970. I have not seen any used oil analysis reports that show modern 5W-20 not staying in grade for at least 7500 miles.

I'll have to find my old UOA from my Focus. The 5W20 I was using (Motorcraft) thinned down to what they called an equivalent of a 15 weight.

Either way, as I pointed at and you mentioned, at operating temp it'll be the same viscosity.

[nikita]

UOA's Ive seen for the 4.7 Tundra V-8 have shown that the engine is very easy on the oil. It may help that the sump capacity is so big.

[mhadden]

Well, I lubed my stuff today with Valvoline synthetic (which is against "my religion"). I couldn't find M1 Anyways, the 3 on the rear shafts are easy as pie, but the two for the front shaft caused me trouble. Hard to reach spots because of the shielding, and my fitting got stuck on both zerks, so I had to use a screwdriver to pry it off : Oh well, I know what to expect next time...

[mhadden]

After snooping around a little bit, I found these illustrations that will help you locate the zerks if you are not oriented correctly on the photo's Dana took

[TheFrozenTundra]

How long should it take before I see grease coming out signifying that I am done? I spent 10 minutes on the rear-most and I can't even tell if grease is going in there.

[Truckin]

shouldn't take but a few pumps of the grease gun

[TheFrozenTundra]

I found out the problem. I had put the entire grease cartridge (14oz) inside, which I thought it could take. Only once I globbed the grease out and put it bare inside the cynlinder of the gun did it come out quickly and I was able to do the job.

FYI I had to remove the heat shield to get at the center zerk.