Greasing driveshaft u-joints

I think non-greasable u-joints were one of the dumbest engineering decisions ever unless a manufacturer was trying to create some future make work for their dealers. Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to put non-greaseable u-joints in heavy equipment except for when most companies using this equipment trade it off every 3 years or 400,000 miles for more new equipment. No surprise that Volvo does this.

 

Respectfully disagree with you on this one.

 

I have mixed feelings on non greasable parts. The bulk of my work nowadays is construction equipment and material handling stuff. A lot of the stuff with non-servicable parts don't seem to last as long as the greasable parts *if they are greased regularly.*

OTOH I had a pickup truck I put over 200k on the factory, non-serviceable ball joints and I still could have comfortably pushed another 25-30k out of them. The original u-joints made it beyond 300k no problem.

 

there is a big difference between grease able and non greasable spring bushings so there not really a comparison. most of your grease type spring bushings are ether roller bearings or a brass bushing. my mack has non grease-able spring bushings but they are a rubber bushing similar to what you would find on a rear suspension.

i feel the roller bearings are a bad design for the front springs, mostly because once they start to go they really go super sloppy very quickly the bushing type im ok with, they wear on a gradual curve. honestly i think the rubber bushing design is very smart, i was very skeptical when i went to grease my truck for the first time and realized there was no way to grease the spring bushings till i realized what exactly the bushings were.

u joints on the other hand as far as i have seen are very much the same design between grease able and non, i have never had non grease able u joints on a big truck but iv changed many on automotive applications and every sealed u joint iv ever had go bad on a automotive application had not a trace of grease in it when changed. i would want to see a major difference in the design of the u joint itself before i personally would ever purchase a sealed u joint.

the only reasons i can come up with why a sealed might last longer is someone that has all there grease work done at a shop. the only reasons why i could personally rationalize this is not grease types are compatible with each other. mixing greased of different types can degrade there performance so if every shop you go to puts in a different type of grease the grease probably isnt doing its job as well as it should. the other reason is people not cleaning the grease nipple off before pushing grease in therefore contaminating the u joint with dirt.

 

Rubber front spring bushings are junk. When Kenworth started slapping that #### in their trucks around 2006 we picked up a lot of work retrofitting to the old threaded style bushings in because the rubber bushings pounded out in a year. Even the spring eye bushings on the Airliner suspension don't last.

 

this truck is the first iv ever delt with with rubber spring eye bushings, so far the what 3? years iv had this truck so far i have not had any issues with the spring bushings, i had to change some in the rear suspension that were good till an alignment shop melted them trying to get the bolts out of the tq arms.

 

I started using non greasable because I work in northern Alberta oilfields and my trucks were up in the muskeg. It was rare that guys would crawl under a truck in the mud to grease it, it was all off road and guys were snapping then when stuck in the muskeg trying to get out because they weren't greased enough.

Even now, I am about to switch my pete over right away. I like them because I hate crawling under the truck in the wet snow or mud. I can grease the rest of my truck without getting on the ground and I just inspect everything while I'm under there for my bi monthly oil change.

On a side note, non greasing ones have been far more reliable in my trucks than the greasing ones. Greasable ones mayou be better if properly greased but that's the key words right there....

 

That mud dries like freaking concrete too.

 

call me crazy but i accually like getting hands on under my truck, im normally home every weekend and do it inside my shop. so its not so bad, but iv caught numerous unrelated issues while under my truck greasing the u joints that i might not have noticed without getting up close and personal. therefore able to fix the issues before they became a problem.

 

I had an '89 GMC with non-greaseable ball joints. One of them got dry and started makin' racket. I drilled a hole in the bottom and threaded a zirk in, greased it up, and drove the pickup for at least another year after that before I sold it. Never did change that ball joint.

But I like greaseable stuff. It forces me to get under the truck and inspect stuff.