U-Joint Recommendation 1988 F-250 4x4 Stick

[rempfer]

1. I have a mishmosh of u-joints in my new (to me) 7.3 IDI XLE 4x4 pickup. Some have no zerk while others have the zerk in an ridiculous location. I would like to replace all either with permanently-lubricated u-joints, if these even exist, or preferably with u-joints which have the zerk in an accessible location. Could I please get a replacement u-joint recommendation from you all?

2. Also, the yoke at the rear differential is loose on the input shaft and wobbles a bit on the shaft. I encountered this once before on a Case backhoe where fortunately only the yoke was worn and the shaft was still in good shape. Am I likely to find the same thing here, hopefully worn yoke but shaft still good?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

-- **** R. Elma Washington USA

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Dana-Spicer U-joints can be had with or without grease fittings. Same with Neapco IIRC. Whether you can reach the fitting once installed mostly depends on how the joint gets installed, there are always at least 2 positions for them to assume.

Regarding the loose yoke, that is a known issue with these trucks, yes it is possible for the yoke to wear but not the pinion shaft. Quite often neither is prohibitively worn and you can just tightening it while the thing is still in the truck (no impact wrench, use a larger breaker bar or torque wrench only!) and then tack-weld the nut to the yoke so it won't back off again. And sometimes you have to replace the yoke, but you can still leave the pinion in place. And if you want this to never happen again, you can remove the factory crush sleeve and install a solid spacer and shims, this however will require removal of the differential - no big deal, we've had board members with zero previous axle work experience successfully do this repair at home, all the information needed is here just needs to be dug out.

 

[typ4]

I used to be a spicer guy all the way but the 4x4 with the extra torque eats rear joints. The spicer lube for life are not good IMO . They are stronger because of no lube galleys but the grease leaves pretty quick, the longest I had one last was with synthetic grease packed in before assy.
I have had the best luck with napa/precision joints. They look beefier and even tho drilled for grease have held up 3 times longer than others.
My2C.
Oh and do the crush sleeve eliminator, works wonders with a new yoke.

 

[chris142]

Spicer recomends 3000 miles between greasings when using greasables.i went with precision greasables because they were made in usa and in stock on a sunday. No problem getting to the zerks.

 

[rempfer]

Thanks for the replies. I guess for the moment I'll try tightening the somewhat sloppy yoke on the shaft and see how it behaves. I appreciate the recommendations re: u-joints and will no doubt go with greaseable. I will also search for the thread on removing the factory crush sleeve LCAM-01XA mentioned. Another question would be where can I find a decent grease gun adapter for greasing zerks in poorly accessible locations? The one I have (country of origin suspected to be other than USA) does not do a good job of depressing ball-check valve on the face of the zerk. In fact, do they make a narrow grease gun adapter that actually has a sleeve at its tip to help maintain its position on the face of the zerk?

Anyway, thanks again everyone!

 

[laserjock]

I have used ones that look like this to varying degrees of success.

http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Lubrication-5803-Grease-Needle/dp/B0002SR6XE