Driveshaft Lubing - Am I in trouble???

[Old#7]

Oh ok yeah it's not under those conditions. Thread hijack but any idea what my clunk noise might be from?

Check your sway bar bushings and links. Mine are way past due for replacement and they do what you describe.

 

[College Cruiser]

Check your sway bar bushings and links. Mine are way past due for replacement and they do what you describe.

Will do thanks for the info.

 

[re_guderian]

When I took the DS apart on my 80, I saw a nice glob of moly grease way at the top where it comes in through the grease fitting. Gravity, heat, and centrifugal force should eventually move it down to the splines. Pumping that cavity full until the grease is forced out past the splines would require filling the entire air space with grease first, a very bad idea I think.

I don't like this design, because there is no way to know if I'm running dry between services, or adding more than I'm using and gradually filling the airspace. I'm planning to take my DS apart this Spring for a proper cleaning and lubing.

The difference on the 100 rear driveshaft is that the grease "reservoir" is on the downhill side near the pinion. I just took mine apart and scooped gobs of grease out of there after it wouldn't accept any more. My seal wouldn't allow any grease to flow. This bothers me. I also had to remove the zirk to alleviate the air pressure to even get it reassembled. Normal?

With a seal that tight, I'm not sure how much articulation it is doing. At nuetral ride height, there was only about 1" or less of smooth, polished drive shaft exposed past the seal. Sound right? or too little? I just greased the splines, wiped up what came out the zirk hole when compressed before asembly and called it good. I'm pretty darn sure there's not much grease in there at all outside of what's on the spines. I'll check it in a few weeks and see, but still, not sure how to get the seal functioning correctly.

It seems like a non-functioning seal is a barrier to the correct range of free motion that I'd expect a DS to have. I don't "think" my DS should be an active part of my suspension, right? As air, water, and grease-tight as it is, it HAS to be actiing like part of a spring, otherwise all my grease would have been purged on the first big compression, right?

 

[OregonLC]

I agree with your assessment. I always thought it was our job to fill and the truck's job to purge via compression. I just think our trucks are now old enough to have hard crusty seals that prevent this process.