The OFFICIAL clunk/thunk driveshaft thread (9 Viewers)

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Well I got under the truck this afternoon and greased all four u-joints and both drive shafts until grease came out of each one.

For those who come after me, just know, I had to pump my grease gun over 70 times to get grease to come out of the rear drive shaft splines, and over 50 for the front. My hands were tired. YMMV.

I haven't given it a long test drive yet. over the 1.4 miles I did manage, I couldn't get it to give me the old thunk when slowing down or speeding up like before. I noticed at least one of the front torsion bar bushings, not sure if that's the right term, was worn and cracking. So if there is still some of the "thunk" left to treat after the greasing I'll move on to suspension components.
 
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Maybe sway bar bushings?

No bushings on the TBs.

I did front and rear sway bar bushings and links when I first got my LC.

Gonna pump away as you did on my slip yokes, my u-joints are full though.
 
Anyone else concerned about excessive pressures and the forces too much grease in one application into the slips can produce? Depending on the quality of the grease gun you can produce anything from 2000 - 15000 psi and output 0.5-3.0 grams per stroke. Having blown out wiper seals in other equipments (and having to tear down/repair and deal with the resulting down time) by "just a couple more pumps" I'm very much in the camp of fewer pumps spread over a period of time for this application, just to error on the safe side. I'm lucky in that I don't have to try and make up for potentially neglected greasing routines though. Personally I wouldn't apply 50 or 70 strokes to the slips in one siting. But as always YMMV.
 
My thoughts right now are this,

My rig has 440,000 miles in it.

I don't think my trying to get grease past the seal is going to hurt anything as this point, lol...

I have put quite a few pumps into the shafts and can barely see some extension at times but have yet to see good new grease coming past the seal.

I'm wondering if I should raise the whole rig on jack stands front and rear to extend front and rear shafts fully and then try and fill them.
 
Anyone else concerned about excessive pressures and the forces too much grease in one application into the slips can produce? Depending on the quality of the grease gun you can produce anything from 2000 - 15000 psi and output 0.5-3.0 grams per stroke. Having blown out wiper seals in other equipments (and having to tear down/repair and deal with the resulting down time) by "just a couple more pumps" I'm very much in the camp of fewer pumps spread over a period of time for this application, just to error on the safe side. I'm lucky in that I don't have to try and make up for potentially neglected greasing routines though. Personally I wouldn't apply 50 or 70 strokes to the slips in one siting. But as always YMMV.
I've been concerned for years: Lubing propeller shaft Risky (AKA Drive Shaft)

A few pumps spread over time is a great idea! A few pumps in propeller shaft's yokes that have been service properly is all that should be needed.

However when I'm setting up a rig for someone else that has not been properly service, this isn't always practical. As it will most likely come back with a clunk.

I do use a pneumatic grease gun (PITA prime from HF), but with caution. I've found with our aging fleet these seals are often more cooperative. Especial in those that haven't been properly service as seal have worn, allowing grease to pass easier.

Provided I prime (clean & grease outer seal lip) and repeatedly pump & stop (until 1/8" extension then wait for compression) slowly, grease will usually flow. But sometime even after flow starts it will stop if grease is pumped in to fast as pressure builds. This has convinced me our biggest issue is the inner lip of seal (duel lip seal) tights under pressure cutting off flow. When this happens I pull the grease zerk and let pressure bleed off. It is scary how much will bleed out in some case, which has tough me to go slow and easy.

When I suspect stiction or very tight inner side of seal I'll use some#1 w/moly grease, it's worked every time to knock out clunk in difficult cases

Here you'll see three different colored greases: #1 w/moly purple, #2 M1 red and some brown old grease pushing out.
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My thoughts right now are this,

My rig has 440,000 miles in it.

I don't think my trying to get grease past the seal is going to hurt anything as this point, lol...

I have put quite a few pumps into the shafts and can barely see some extension at times but have yet to see good new grease coming past the seal.

I'm wondering if I should raise the whole rig on jack stands front and rear to extend front and rear shafts fully and then try and fill them.
A shop foreman at Toyota dealer once said to me "my guy's know too keep back wheel on ground when pumping in grease" This keeps pressure/shafts at neutral position.
 
For those who come after me, just know, I had to pump my grease gun over 70 times to get grease to come out of the rear drive shaft splines, and over 50 for the front. My hands were tired. YMMV.

Just to prevent confusion, all four of my wheels had weight on them because I used four ramps to get the truck offer the ground, not jack stands. I just got lucky that I could access all the zerk fittings without needing to turn an axle. So I wasn't packing a fully extended propeller shaft with grease and then putting weight back on it, both shafts were at a neutral position.
 
Regarding greasing the sleeve(slip) yoke: I think this is one of those debatable maintenance practices that is hard to qualify. As far as I have been able to find, the FSM doesn't state any particular instruction for the quantity of grease added- how much or how little.

What is the objective? To ensure the slip yoke can slide freely, and the splines are greased for some shock loading? How much grease is necessary to achieve that objective? My "belief" is not too much. Does too much grease in the slip yoke cavity cause DS balance issues, or load the pinion or output bearings with unnecessary pressure? Maybe-maybe not. Does more grease provide F-N-R shock absorption to mitigate a "clunk"- temporarily maybe? Are there water/dust ingression issues to consider?

My preference would be dissembling cleaning out, cleaning the seal lip, and re-greasing splines and yoke by hand then re-assembling as a baseline should be step 1. Then follow a regular interval of adding a few pumps of grease to the slip yoke ( until it moves) and spiders every oil change or 3-5k depending on duty cycle. My thinking is "less is better" and try not to add heaps of grease to the slip yoke as I am more concerned with DS balance and unecessary pressure on drive line components.

I'm open to different schools of thought on this, but mostly would like to see the definitive correct method in print from Toyota.
 
^ Excellent thanks- if only I could read... I totally glossed over that in the FSM cause was looking for "pictures"
 
I recently purchased a 2006 with the thunk. I just greased it and the thunk went away, which is great. However, just like lexi4darin reported back on page 7 of this thread, my driveshaft has a hole in it, in a similar place to his. As a result, I cant push grease out past the splines and I suspect the thunk will return soon. Did anyone ever figure out if this hole was added, maybe for 06 and 07 when they flipped the shaft around? Or maybe there are just some shaft ends that have casting flaws out there?
 
Darin's LX was a MY2000.

My new 2017 has driveline thunk as did my 1996 LX (bought new). It's inherent in the Toyota drive line. The severity increases as systems wear.

Your 2017 Land Cruiser has the clunk? What the heck ha. My FJ cruiser and my 80 series did not have the clunk at all.
 
Your 2017 Land Cruiser has the clunk? What the heck ha. My FJ cruiser and my 80 series did not have the clunk at all.

It starts as very very very minor driveline lash. every 80/100/200 I've been in has it. Its minor you don't even notice it. This is my point, there is no one thunk. My 100 is mostly clunk/thunk free (back to new feeling) but it took refreshing a few things.
 
Wow, this thread is a wealth of knowledge.

2003 LX470, 120k+ miles now.

Used this grease gun (mentioned earlier in the thread):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002NYDZ8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

With this grease (NGLI #2, with MOLY):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CQ4DK0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

And this video on how to load the grease gun (since I'm a n00b):

* note for the first timers... simply push the grease gun tip onto the grease nipple (or zerk), it'll fit. also watch out for air pockets in the gun else you'll be pumping forever with no grease coming out.

Have only greased in the rear spots (2x spider, 1x slide yoke), and the THUNK is about 90% reduced within the first hour of driving at the 10mph coasting --> accelerate range.. and now undetectable at the 35mpg coasting --> accelerate range. Greased until I heard (crackling noise) AND saw grease coming out of the seals.

Took about 4-5 hand pumps for the spiders, and around 50x for the slide yokes (yes, not a typo).

THANK YOU ih8mud. This is an amazing community.
 

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