The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk u-joint grease

have a 1-1/2 ton 1941 and I can't get any of my grease guns to fit inside the u-joint...

Go to parts house and pick up a "needle point" It attaches to grease gun tube and instead of snapping over zirc, it pushes into zirk ball valve. Also the u-joint may be installed wrong direction. Hope this is helpfull.

Stranger - I've been told about the u-joints being in the wrong direction before... how do you tell when yer installing them?

I'm just curious.

-W

I guess that you have tried rotating the driveshaft a bit? Sometimes if you get the fitting facing the outside of the bend in the driveline it will make a difference.

I have the same problem. I took the shaft off to grease, what a pain. And all I had to do was go get a "needle point" attachment. Man, I could have used that advice sooner.

Frank, did you get it at a NAPA? It is definitely called a needle point?

A u-joint should be installed with the grease fitting on the compression side of the yoke. What that means is, as the transmission yoke turns, it pushes on the grease fitting as it tries to turn the driveshaft. You don't want the yoke to pull on the webbing of the u-joint where the fitting is. The other end of the driveshaft is the same only the driveshaft yoke pushes on the fitting as it tries to turn the pinion yoke. The grease fitting should be pointing at the yoke with the most clearance, usually the driveshaft.

Joe

Any parts house should carry the Needle point attatchment. Try to talk to the "older guy". Worse case, explain it.
Yes you can install the u-joint backwards. If you look at yours
I assume the zirc is at the side, off center at the "x" of the joint. Rotate the joint to were you would try to grease it, and imagine zirc opposite direction of were it is pointing. Would that make room to grease? I am thinking the zirc should always
point away from driveshaft.
You can also buy u-joints with the grease zirc in the cap wich eliminates getting u-joint in backwards, and needing the Needle
point attachment.
Last option is to drop the drive shaft to grease.
Hope explanation is somewhat clear and helpful.

truckernix has it right. Usually you need to rotate the shaft to give the fittings just enough room to get the grease gun on the head of the zirc.


Joe, maybe I don't understand, but that makes no sense to me. I'm not discounting what you say, but I have never heard anything about that. I've always installed them wherever the clearance is best for applying the grease.


The crappy part is that I have never been able to grease those flat topped fittings correctly. I believe the zirc fittings are 10-24 and McMaster Carr is the only one I know of which carries them with the round head. The guy at Napa and several other places I called thought I was an idiot when I asked for them (the fittings).

Jeff

Back when I was drag racing, a drive line shop showed me how to install the joints. Hold a u-joint with the grease fitting at 1:30 and the caps at 12, 3, 6, and 9. You would put the transmission yoke at 12 and 6, and the driveshaft at 3 and 9. With the grease fitting at 1:30, the transmission is pushing towards 3 and nine, compressing the web with the fitting.

On a six cylinder drive train, it won't make any difference, just place them so the grease fitting has the most clearance. High horsepower guys need to worry more about it then we do.

Thanks for the explanation. I appreciate it.

here's my sign... thanks... I must of changed 100 of these in my life and this was the first time I had a problem but It seems I was not educated,,,, I feel dumb but I learned something today... surprised I never read on any box saying which end forward. it should

Here in Canada we have Princess Auto which carries similar products to Harbour Freight. I was in a Princess Auto the other day and they had the needle type hand held grease applicators.