Chassis greasing help?

[deprived]

I do most of my own work on my vehicles but usually I’ve always left grease jobs to the shop. Last time I did it was in 1979 on my ’63 Corvair. That cured me. Too messy. I’ve decided to to do the grease job myself on my 2008 Freightliner FRED chassis. Getting prepared, I scrubbed and cleaned all the joints and zerks, which wasn’t too bad but I am left with a couple of questions. Maybe someone here can help.

First: From what i can tell, all joints (u-joints, king pins, slip, tie-rod) have grease applied to them until the new grease pushes out the old. But is this true for all joints? I remember on my Corvair, for example, you had to be careful not to burst the boot on the tie-rod joints. You put grease in until you felt the boot swell and that was it.

The front and rear drag link joints on my rig look pretty full to me (see picture). They also look expensive and difficult to replace! So is it SOP to apply grease to these drag-link joints until the old grease is pushed out?

Second: The slip joint on the steering shaft has an easily-accessible zerk for greasing. But the drive shaft doesn’t appear to have one. It is covered in a flexible boot that is semi-permanently crimped on. Does that mean I should leave it alone? I’m not sure what to do here. The maintenance manual doesn’t cover my particular setup.

If there’s no zerk, then it would appear that I’d have to remove that section of the driveshaft and disassemble the joint to grease it. I really don’t want to do that. Perhaps someone else has dealt with this?

!!!-THANKS-!!!

[Pigman1]

If you don't have an owner's manual for your Fred, contact Tiffin at 256-356-0261, M-F normal business hours and ask one of the service technicians how you can get a copy of their instructions. The manual on my 2008 and subsequent 2013 Buses had the zirk locations and instructions on what to grease and how.

[deprived]

Originally Posted by Pigman1

If you don't have an owner's manual for your Fred, contact Tiffin at 256-356-0261, M-F normal business hours and ask one of the service technicians how you can get a copy of their instructions. The manual on my 2008 and subsequent 2013 Buses had the zirk locations and instructions on what to grease and how.

I've got the owner's manual, the maintenance manual and the shop manual. None of them address the slip joint, at least in terms of maintenance. The workshop manual barely mentions the FRED at all.

But you're right about calling Tiffin. What could it hurt, right? Good advice. Thanks!

[Soppy]

The slip joint on the driveshaft with the boot does not have to be greased. Tie rod ends and joints like the ones you've shown , fill them with grease till they look like the one you show fully greased. Kingpins (if you have them) and universal joints should be greased till the fresh grease is pumped out. The same holds true for any other non sealed joints. The trick is to find all the grease fittings.

[deprived]

Originally Posted by Soppy

The slip joint on the driveshaft with the boot does not have to be greased.

Really? Wow - That's interesting! I'm not familiar with this scheme.

Do you know why they did this? Does a joint like this ever need any attention?

!!!!---THANKS---!!!!

[GuyG]

I've always done my own lubing, and made a living for MANY years doing it for my customers.. It's a great time to look for and spot issues that are about to happen. Kinda like when you wash your own vehicle and spot a scratch, etc., you didn't see before.

Now that I use a hand grease gun and still only have two hands, I have found a life-saver. Anyone who has ever had to hold the gun onto a grease fitting with one hand and use their leg/knee, etc. to support the gun will love this:

https://locknlube.com/collections/lo...ase-coupler-xl

Cheers.

[Soppy]

Originally Posted by deprived

Really? Wow - That's interesting! I'm not familiar with this scheme.

Do you know why they did this? Does a joint like this ever need any attention?

!!!!---THANKS---!!!!

They put the boot over it to keep out dirt and moisture and the grease in , just like the CV boots on the drive axles vehicles. It just makes it maintenance free. The only time it has to be serviced is when the boot cracks .

[Pigman1]

Originally Posted by GuyG

I've always done my own lubing, and made a living for MANY years doing it for my customers.. It's a great time to look for and spot issues that are about to happen. Kinda like when you wash your own vehicle and spot a scratch, etc., you didn't see before.

Now that I use a hand grease gun and still only have two hands, I have found a life-saver. Anyone who has ever had to hold the gun onto a grease fitting with one hand and use their leg/knee, etc. to support the gun will love this:

https://locknlube.com/collections/lo...ase-coupler-xl

Cheers.

Rather than using a lever activated grease gun that requires one hand on the lever and one hand on the barrel, try a pistol grip gun. Only one hand needed to hold AND pump. They are available at any auto supply store or places like Harbor Freight. Another clue: If you find the fitting continually jumping off the zirk, pick up a new end fitting at an auto supply store. You'll be amazed at how well it works after you put the new one on. These tips wear out and need to be replaced every so often.

[deprived]

Originally Posted by GuyG

Anyone who has ever had to hold the gun onto a grease fitting with one hand and use their leg/knee, etc. to support the gun will love this

That looks great. So far all I've done is the driveshaft, the remainder of my workday cut short because of rain. Tomorrow I'll get to the kingpins and steering links. I could really use a small one-hand grease gun to get at the steering-wheel u-joints and slip.

[lwmcguire]

Originally Posted by Pigman1

Rather than using a lever activated grease gun that requires one hand on the lever and one hand on the barrel, try a pistol grip gun. Only one hand needed to hold AND pump. They are available at any auto supply store or places like Harbor Freight. Another clue: If you find the fitting continually jumping off the zirk, pick up a new end fitting at an auto supply store. You'll be amazed at how well it works after you put the new one on. These tips wear out and need to be replaced every so often.

Pistol grip guns are lower pressure so may not work on all fittings but sure are handy on the easy zerks. The new replacement grease couplers come in regular and heavy duty with the heavy duty having higher tension springs. New ones definitely work better than a worn out coupler. If you have a shop the air grease gun is the way to go.

[lwmcguire]

The kid at Freightliner that greased my Chassis put more grease around the zerks than ever went into them. Not sure he even got all of them as I didn't check for a month or so. the next lube left me thinking he missed some or just didn't get them properly greased. A really good reason to do your own if you are up to it. I like to wipe off the old grease and any that escapes as well just to keep things tidy, Freightliner shop left is quite a mess.

[Pigman1]

Pistol grip guns go up to 7500PSI which is above many cheaper lever types. Yes, some lever types will go to 10,000PSI, but if you're having to use that much pressure you should be looking to replace the zirk or looking for other problems with that joint. I use a very old pistol grip gun I've used on 3 Class A's, a Class C, and 20 years of greasing all sorts of farm equipment. Any problem I've had putting grease in with that gun has been solved by changing the zirk or disassembling the failed joint. A solid feed tube with a universal fitting on the end makes for an easier greasing than the usual hose.

[Rkesselus]

The slip joint as said needs no attention it is nothing more than a spline fitting.

[Damion]

Originally Posted by GuyG

I've always done my own lubing, and made a living for MANY years doing it for my customers.. It's a great time to look for and spot issues that are about to happen. Kinda like when you wash your own vehicle and spot a scratch, etc., you didn't see before.

Now that I use a hand grease gun and still only have two hands, I have found a life-saver. Anyone who has ever had to hold the gun onto a grease fitting with one hand and use their leg/knee, etc. to support the gun will love this:

https://locknlube.com/collections/lo...ase-coupler-xl

Cheers.

I second that!

I'm using different brand but they are FANTASTIC!