taraw16•11d agoProlific Poster

TIL that greasing your own U-joints is way easier than I thought

I had a driveshaft clunk on my 2002 F-150 last week, so I figured the U-joints were toast. I was about to drop $300 at a shop to have them pressed in and out. But a buddy at the parts counter talked me into trying the greaseable ones with a cheap grease gun from Harbor Freight. I figured I'd mess it up and waste a Saturday, but the whole job took me 2 hours and $45 in parts. The old joints were just dry, not even worn out, so greasing them would have saved me the whole headache. Now I'm kicking myself for being scared of it for 10 years. Has anyone else found a repair they put off forever that turned out to be simple?

2 comments

2 Comments

charles_chen9311d ago

Nah, I gotta push back on this a little bit. I mean yeah, if the truck has the factory sealed joints that are just a little dry from age, greasing them might work for a while. But on a 2002 F-150 those are original parts that have been through 20+ years of rust and heat cycles. Once that rubber seal gets hard and starts cracking, pumping fresh grease in is just gonna push the old crud deeper into the bearing. I've seen guys do that and then three months later the joint seizes up on the highway and takes out the whole driveshaft. The real lesson here is that you caught it early, which is good, but swapping to greasable ones was actually the right move because now you can maintain them properly going forward. You saved yourself a future headache, even if the old ones weren't fully dead yet.

iris_rivera4411d ago

Wait, do you think the factory sealed ones are always that bad even if they still feel tight? I read a thing from some old school mechanic once who said you can sometimes save sealed joints if you catch them before the boot tears, by just cleaning the zerk fitting area real good and only pumping in a tiny bit of grease. But I gotta agree with @charles_chen93 that on an 02 F-150 you're already past the point of no return with all that rust. I've seen too many videos of guys doing exactly what you warned about, thinking they fixed it, then the joint locks up and wrecks the whole shaft. Replacing with greasable ones is the only real way to keep driving it without worrying every time you hit the gas. You made the right call swapping them out, even if it cost you some time and money now.