Zerk fitting problems

[maxwell18]

I was doing some followup maintenance on my motorhome and found grease fittings at drive shaft and transmissions that would not take grease. Anyway I have had it in for oil change and lub and I just found the first of all grease fittings will not take grease. What is the fix, use heat on the zerks and then re lub if possible? Any ideas will help.
Thanks

[8.3Oilbuner]

Good evening Bruce; Only had this happen to me once in all my 40 years of working on cars, trucks etc. I had a zerk fitting freeze up. They are removable. Replaced with new fitting and the U joint took grease. You can get them at any auto parts store. I would first clean the area around the fitting and remove it. With the zerk fitting removed, I would see if there is any grease in the cavity behind the fitting. If not, could be bad zerk fitting. If grease is present, could be plugged galley in the U joint. It can take a lot of PSI to break loose a plugged galley. The U joints on my 01 Windsor have 2 zerk fittings 180 degrees from each other. Do you have 2 on each of your U joints. If so you could remove the fitting that is not taking grease, apply grease to the other fitting on the joint and see if grease comes out the hole where you removed the zerk fitting. When greasing these U joints, you should get purged grease out of the seals just below the bearing caps. Four caps for each U joint. If this does not work, the drive shaft may need to be removed and the bearing caps taken off to see why grease is not flowing to the bearing caps. Hope this is not your problem. Try procedure above and see what happens. Not too bad of a job to see if you can get some grease purging from your U joints. Hope this info helps. Let us know how you make out. Good luck.

[Topman]

I had the same problem.
You likely have the large "Spicer" type u-joints as I do.
I loosened the bolts which hold the caps over the bearing cups. You will need to bend back the tabs which keep the bolts from loosening. Back the bolts off but leave them in place. Then I used an air-powered grease gun(a regular grease gun might work as well), and forced grease into the joint which then pushed the bearing cup out but still held in place by the caps. Once the bearing cup moves out a little it allows grease to move into the cup and then exit through the seal.
Then you can tighten the bolts back up to push the cups back in place. Just remember to bend the tabs over on each bolt.
I worked for me. Good luck with yours,
Iver.

[djhinds]

Had the exact same problem with my coach. Topman's idea worked for me but don't forget to torque the bolts. I think the reason mine would not take grease was the bolts were so tight I had to use a breaker bar to loosen them. Once I loosened the bolts on one (at a time) I hit the opposite side with a large lead hammer (or dead blow hammer) to loosen the cap. It worked like a charm and now new grease from ALL caps. I used a Lincoln air powered grease gun with a 40" hose. After torqueing bolts correctly grease exits all caps every time.


Drive Shaft Addendm.pdf


Driveshaft Lubrication.pdf


Good Luck
Dave

[twinboat]

It's been a while since I installed Spicer U joints, but I recall them not recomending using the old bolts over.

We did reuse them, on ocassion, but also found snapped bolts.

It was a large fleet, so we wouldn't know if the snapped ones were the reused ones.

[clifford j]

I think the last comment about seeing new grease coming from ALL cups is
absolutely critical. U joints as simple as they may seem are your lifeline . Nothing worst than a broken joint or dropped drive shaft on the ground. U joints are CHEAP and in most cases easy to replace. If you have to break loose a joint to grease it, think about going the next step and replace it.

CLIFFORD

[Topman]

Clifford is right about the cost of U-Joints. They are relatively cheap and fairly easy to replace. On my last two buses, I changed the U-joints simply because I didn't have a mileage history on them. Just peace of mind.
Iver.