How to grease drive train on LX 570? (2 Viewers)

[Charlielj]

For additional info, I did skim through these two threads below.

How I grease my front driveshaf
Drive train lubrication

My questions are:

1. Do I have to get all four wheels off the ground at once when greasing all the zerks? Or, can I jack either the two wheels of front or rear separately?
2. I've read many like to use moly grease. Is there any particular brand of grease that contains moly? Do I apply this same grease throughout the whole vehicle on my 2014 LX 570? Or, are there certain spots on the drive train that requires different grease type?
3. I already owned the Performax® Heavy Duty Pistol Grip Grease Gun, I assumed this should be good to do what I needed to do?

Thank you in advance.

 

[bloc]

Do not use moly grease in the u-joints, it is bad for the needle bearings in them. Regular NLGI#2 lithium based grease will work great as long as it’s used often enough.

The first linked thread shows specifically what to do with wheels in the air or not.

 

[04UZJ100]

I use Green Grease in every zerk.

 

[Charlielj]

I use Green Grease in every zerk.

Are you referring to Green Grease part# 101? Usually is one 14oz tube be enough? I have never done it my life....never would've thought I have to do that. I only found this out when one of the responders to my other thread about changing diff./ t-case fluid and he happened to mention that I may want to grease the drive train while changing my fluid. Some people are saying they grease their drive train around the same time as their oil change.

 

[doru]

Factory manual specifies that you can use the regular lithium grease on both spider and yoke. So I, and many others here from which I learned, keep it simple and do that using Lucas X-Tra heavy duty grease.

The threads have all info you need. But even if you only read my post you should be able to do it.
One bit of advice - do not overthink it and make it harder for yourself. It is just greasing the zerks. You have the gun, get the grease. Put suspension on Hi and disable kneeling so it stays like that when you shut it off. Get under and see where the zerks are. If not in the right position, just drive a bit FW/RW to get them right. I do not mess with lifting the truck - too much hassle to do it safely compared to just rolling it. Keep in mind: both shafts turn clockwise (looking forward) when backing.

I take the thermic shield off of the transfer case (the metal sheet part no the tube guard) to make life easier to grease the spiders in there.
Also take the engine plastic shield off so I can clean the grease overflow from the spider; if greasing at the time of oil change that saves time.

Pump until old grease comes out of the spiders. No need to think this. Just do it.
Pump 5-20 on the yokes. There si no definitive answer for this. The manual says to stop when the yoke starts expanding. That may or may not happen for you. To stay safe pump less.

Some people do not bother cleaning the extra grease from spiders. I do mind and clean the spiders after greasing to minimize the grease splashing under the truck. But skipping that does not harm anything on the truck, just the environment.

 

[Fisher23]

Are you referring to Green Grease part# 101? Usually is one 14oz tube be enough? I have never done it my life....never would've thought I have to do that. I only found this out when one of the responders to my other thread about changing diff./ t-case fluid and he happened to mention that I may want to grease the drive train while changing my fluid. Some people are saying they grease their drive train around the same time as their oil change.

That is what I use also .. makes a huge difference if you get into water.

 

[McDuff123]

Pump until old grease comes out of the spiders. No need to think this. Just do it.
Pump 5-20 on the yokes. There si no definitive answer for this. The manual says to stop when the yoke starts expanding. That may or may not happen for you. To stay safe pump less.

This. You can’t over-grease the U-joints…it will just start purging out (that’s actually what you want to see…tells you that there is now fresh grease in the joint).
You can however over-grease the drive shaft yoke. You’ll never see any coming out, so some people just keep pumping.
That can over fill the cavity, and prevent the slip joint from compressing like it needs to do.
Go lite…maybe 5-8 pumps

 

[Charlielj]

Factory manual specifies that you can use the regular lithium grease on both spider and yoke. So I, and many others here from which I learned, keep it simple and do that using Lucas X-Tra heavy duty grease.

The threads have all info you need. But even if you only read my post you should be able to do it.
One bit of advice - do not overthink it and make it harder for yourself. It is just greasing the zerks. You have the gun, get the grease. Put suspension on Hi and disable kneeling so it stays like that when you shut it off. Get under and see where the zerks are. If not in the right position, just drive a bit FW/RW to get them right. I do not mess with lifting the truck - too much hassle to do it safely compared to just rolling it. Keep in mind: both shafts turn clockwise (looking forward) when backing.

I take the thermic shield off of the transfer case (the metal sheet part no the tube guard) to make life easier to grease the spiders in there.
Also take the engine plastic shield off so I can clean the grease overflow from the spider; if greasing at the time of oil change that saves time.

Pump until old grease comes out of the spiders. No need to think this. Just do it.
Pump 5-20 on the yokes. There si no definitive answer for this. The manual says to stop when the yoke starts expanding. That may or may not happen for you. To stay safe pump less.

Some people do not bother cleaning the extra grease from spiders. I do mind and clean the spiders after greasing to minimize the grease splashing under the truck. But skipping that does not harm anything on the truck, just the environment.

Wow, that is so much easier..thanks for this tip! I was thinking of lifting all four wheels up and worry about the chance of the vehicle coming down on me. Thanks!

 

[bloc]

With the transmission in neutral you only need to lift one tire 1/2" to turn the driveshaft going to that axle (meaning front or rear) and put the zerk wherever you want it.

I'd counter that my method of alternate corner ramps plus the jack is far easier/quicker than inching the vehicle forward and backward. Not to mention it doesn't give the exhaust a chance to get hot so working on the front driveline can happen more quickly.

But to each their own.

 

[Charlielj]

Thanks for all the tip! I may try this either tonight or tomorrow, much appreciated!

 

[bloc]

And really, with AHC you may not need the ramps.. They are just to create room under the truck for me to work. but I don't think I'd have much room to move around under there even with AHC in high. I'm not the smallest person though.

 

[TeCKis300]

It's been a long time since my LX has been stock but IIRC, I maybe just rolled two wheels up on small pieces of 2x4 for an extra 1.5" of room on top of AHC high and it was fairly easy to grease everything. With a standard 12" flex grease hose, everything can be reached without removing any covers. Maybe with repositioning the car once or twice to clock the zerks in a position they're reachable.

IMO, less grease is more and for a vehicle that's regularly greased (I grease with every oil change), 3-5 pumps on every zerk is enough. Less excess grease flinging around making a mess, and definitely don't hydrolock the slip joint.

 

[Charlielj]

This is what the manufacture suggests.

I assumed Green Grease is NLGI No. 2, correct? I just bought two to use on all zerks.

 

[bloc]

I assumed Green Grease is NLGI No. 2, correct?

They make it a little difficult to find and confirm for sure but yes it does meet that spec.

 

[Zjohnsonua]

NLGI #2 is a very wide spec. Moly, lithium, and flavors in between are all very similar. Wheel bearings are separate as they see some real heat - and there's a high temp grease for them. Green (marine rated) lubricates very similarly but doesn't have some chemicals that powers-that-be want to keep out of water.

Moly grease will not damage a joint...

 

[bloc]

Moly content can vary a lot depending on the product. Since a high moly grease can pose problems, and regular lithium definitely won’t, it’s easier to just stick to what Toyota recommends in the manual.

It’s unlikely that type of moly is what would be used by someone that doesn’t know what they are doing.. but possible.

 

[Charlielj]

Okay, I finally had the time to grease the shaft. For some reason I only found three instead of four. At the rear, I only found one.

This is what mine looks like...not sure if it's correct. The zerk No. 2 is the one that I pumped like 30 plus but see nothing moved or no grease anywhere.

 

[bloc]

No more grease in no. 2.

And I’d advise getting help with the rest.

 

[Mrtwooooo]

Okay, I finally had the time to grease the shaft. For some reason I only found three instead of four. At the rear, I only found one.
View attachment 3432525
This is what mine looks like...not sure if it's correct. The zerk No. 2 is the one that I pumped like 30 plus but see nothing moved or no grease anywhere.
View attachment 3432527

if you did 30+ pumps of grease into the No.2 zerk then thats probably not good... as in you overfilled it.

 

[bloc]

if you did 30+ pumps of grease into the No.2 zerk then thats probably not good... as in you overfilled it.

Agreed. I'd unscrew that zerk and put the suspension in low/kneel mode to push out the excess, then reinstall zerk, but be sure not to over tighten it.

My advice to get help is based on not being able to find the other zerks which are definitely there. Even reinstalling that no. 2 zerk is risky for someone with very little mechanical experience.