Gears not as smooth after greasing Uni-joints and slip yokes (1 Viewer)

[Pilotg2]

Great forum and info you guys have here.

Continuing with my home servicing mission of my auto 2012 150 3l it was time to grease the tailshaft.

Being my first time I did what I thought was sufficient research so I couldn't stuff it up. Over filling the slip yoke seemed the only risk!

I greased the Uni-joints until I saw the new grease ooze out. I now understand I should have stopped as soon as I saw the old grease appear. Still no real harm done I believe.

The slip yoke I greased twice. First I just put in 3 squirts from my mini grease gun. Went for a test drive and immediately noticed the low gear changes weren't as smooth and I was still experiencing a good tail shaft whack.

So I greased both slip yokes until I saw movement in the prop shaft, removed the zerk and rocked the car back and forth, even backed up and forth and slammed brakes. A nice long 6cm bead of grease squeezed out. Replaced zerk.

Problems I'm now experiencing:

1. After pulling off from a stop the 2nd gear change feels significantly more abrupt.
2. Coming to a stop that last gear change is now noticeable.
3. At a stop the whole car seems to vibrate more at idle even in neutral. Once it D or R the vibration is worse
There is noticeably more over all vibration when under load compared to coasting. Vibration under load seems less noticeable the faster you go.

The engine did already excessively shake as the mounts are probably shot but this far more noticeable vibration only started immediately after greasing the the drive train.

Please could anyone with further knowledge help explain what could be the cause and possible solution?

To add.

Yesterday I removed both the front and rear slip yokes to inspect them. Nothing looked suspicious, splines perfect. The only difference I noticed was the front yoke glided in and out smoothly. With the rear yoke there was resistance at a certain point and it didn't slide smoothly. Even greased up there was still resistance at one certain point when sliding it back together. Could this contribute to the more jerky changes?

 

[nukegoat]

No

 

[AlpineAccess]

You can't over grease the u-joints, but yes the slip yolks can be overdone.

If the slip yolks are locking up with too much grease they will put additional pressure on the transfer case and its mounts and transfer more vibration through the driveline.

If the mounts are shot I'd replace the mounts and then see what's going on. I'd mark and pull the driveshafts, separate the slip yolks and remove all the grease in there and clean everything out. Then lube them with some NGLI #2 grease with moly. Line up marks, assemble, reinstall and test. Then shoot in 3-5 pumps of that same grease, and every oil change add 3-5 pumps. The Moly additive grease seems to liquify a bit easier (particularly in cool weather) and works better in the slip yolk, but DOES require more frequent greasing as it separates more quickly. You being in Aus with the hotter temps it may not be the best solution long term, but should get you through eliminating if the DS is over lubed.