Flyin' grease = bad, and smelly too...

["Mad Max"]

Here's a new one - Driveshaft u-joint boots - anybody have/use 'em? Let's face it - Grease is essential but I hate it all flung up off the u-joints along the underside of the truck, and worse - on the exhaust. So, I'm looking at the front driveshaft on my Ramcharger, and the slipshaft/splined area has a nice, accordian-like rubber cover - it looks just like a shock boot to cover the exposed shock piston arm from getting wet, dirt on it, etc, but my question is can a boot like that be put completely over the u-joints, strapped in place on both sides of the joint, to contain the grease? Of course they'd have to be very good quality rubber and top line bands to hold them in place, and you'd have to restrap the boots when you grease the zirts, but. . why couldn't those be used? And really, the u-joints don't flex in really large angles so the boot would hardly get 'worked'. I dunno, what do y'all think?

- S

 

[paccool]

Watch out for balance problems. If any grease from the joint built up on one side, could be some vibration. Best thing is to just try it and see.

 

["Mad Max"]

Hey Stan! How are ya bud? Been a while - long time no... type . I wondered about the balance thing as well. I'm heading to a 4x4 shop tomorrow and some of these guys out here are a bit nuts (like me... ), but they've probably been to this movie and tried that. I'll post back with their input.

Hope all is well with you amigo. Happy new year!

- Sam

 

[JLEONARD]

Sam,

In lieu of a boot, could you fab up a half round splatter shield above the joint?

Just a thought.

Jay

 

["Mad Max"]

hey... yeah... ... that's not a bad idea Jay... ... . hadn't thought about that, and it'd work real well too. My driveshaft guy out here said he'd seen guys wrap the u-joints with big slabs of leather and tie them tight with good quality zip ties..... but I like your idea better.

See? - THIS is what the TDR is all about. I would have never thought of that... I usually do things the hard way first

- S

 

[JLEONARD]

That comes from my boating experience... . a shield around the stuffing box to prevent salt water from spewing all over everything... I've seen it done a few times.

The stuffing box is the fitting where the prop shaft goes thru the boat (underwater of course) It has a packing gland that must weep by design to keep the packing material cool and lubricated. Some weep just the wrong amount to spray water rather than weep or drip. A shield keeps it in check.

 

[DKasper]

Hey Sam -- I agree with not really wanting to put stuff on the driveline -- the shield idea is great. But if you wanted to try it, I've done similar things in other applications with a section of innertube and zip ties. I don't know if that would hold up to the higher RPMs of a driveline though . . .

I've got some belting that would make a great shield!

 

[JLEONARD]

Flyin' grease = bad, and smelly too...

Like a Sergio Leone film...

The Good, the Bad, and the Smelly

:-laf

 

[MMiller]

You could build some drive shaft loops like the pullers use. Wide flat steel wrapped around the unjoint, to contain all the parts in event of a failure. Then after you grease, drive it to the car wash and wash out the grease. This would make it a pain to grease the joint them.



Uhhmm, since you don't like grease under the truck why don't you go to a un greaseable joint? This truck will most likely not fit down any trail to get into any water, and if you could get it down the trail likely it would get hung up on the bank anyways.



Just some ideas.



Michael-ujoints breaking faster then I can servive them sometimes.

 

["Mad Max"]

Mike - you took the typing right outta my fingers :-laf . I just got the intermediate shaft back from Drive Line Service -(best guys I know of in the 'Springs) - it's a divorced t-case so I needed the intermediate shaft so I could mock up the t-case to drill the holes for the NP205 mounting crossmember. The shaft is so cute - it's only about 12" long and beefy as hell. AAAaannyways I posed this issue to them and they too suggested the non-greasable (though a bit more pricey) u-joints. Sold me then and there. He said they may be a bit less strong, but I doubt it. My 440 should be around 300hp and 500tq at the crank but I don't think I'll bust a joint... . and if I do I'll have spares to un-bust 'em. I want to do all the joints like that, and that should be just the ticket, yeaaahhh.

- S

 

[MMiller]

This is for your off road truck? I thought you were talking about your diesel project. On my off road truck I use greasable ones, when I get back off the trail in the evening I like to give everything a couple pumps of grease to push the water out of them.



Or maybe I am more confused. Are you running a divorced 205 in a ramcharger? Doesn't this make for a super short rear drive shaft?



Straighten me out Sam-what truck are you workin on?



Michael

 

["Mad Max"]

no worries - this is for my Ramcharger 4x4 beater. I didn't mention that the transmission is also the divorced unit with the real short tail unit and fixed yoke - the 12" I-shaft has the slipshaft - actually that's about all the shaft is is the slipshaft with a u-joint at each end. The overall length of the transmission/shaft/t-case is actually I think a tiny bit shorter than the mated 203 unit was - that sucker was really huge... fun to get out too I might add.

These joints I got are basically the same as the ones on our rigs - don't require greasing, and I believe they are waterproof too. Not 100% sure but I'll check that out.

- S

 

[JLEONARD]

 don't require greasing, and I believe they are waterproof too.

Ujoints are ujoints, so my guess is that they use similar seal materials and similar technology as we do in our steering shaft ujoints.

Waterproof is waterproof... up to a point. I'm sure they are tested for a certain number of hours under certain conditions... . those conditions considered to be severe... temperature extremes, certain number of hours subjected to what we call "muddy water" testing (yes there is a specific formula for that muddy water), etc.

All that said, if your system has a little runout, or spends different amounts of times at different conditions, gets whacked by a rock, whatever, waterproof may turn into "water resistant".

I'm sure you know all this, but thought it was worth mentioning.

I think you should get reasonable life out of the non greasable joints, and they should be pretty waterproof... assuming that they were made properly that is.

Jay

 

[TKingsbury]

Non-greasable joints should be stronger, providing they have a solid cross. You can also get joints with the zerk in the center of the caps.

Travis. .