Getting grease gun onto u-joint zerks

[mancad]

I was fortunate enough to get a great 1968 C20 Custom Camper survivor from the original owner; less than 57,000 miles. While doing routine maintenance I tried to grease the three drive shaft u-joints. I could not get the grease gun coupling to clear the yokes welded on the drive shaft. No problem I thought, just jack up both rear wheels (posi) and turn the shaft until there is clearance. Still no access. Upon inspection, there is no straight shot onto the zerk. The whole drive train is incredibly heavy duty. The large yoke extends into the path to the zerk. There is no room for a universal or even a tiny coupling. The only way I can think to work around this is to remove the u-joints and install 45 or 90 degree grease fittings. I also makes be wonder how they were ever greased in the past. Anyone else seen this?

[yuccales]

Welcome to the forum. Have you tried a "needle", that's what I call it anyway. It goes on your grease gun and is about three inches or so. You press the needle on the little ball of the zerk fitting and press it in. Some of those fittings can be tight! Don't forget pics when you can!

[Stocker]

Welcome! Needle adapters come in different types & sizes, just choose whatever you like. I've had one like in this picture for many years and it works very well. The hex end is threaded to accept a zerk for quick grease gun connect / disconnect.

[mechanicalman]

If you ever replace u-joints, pay attention to the orientation of the joint with regards to the grease zerk, it usually is more toward one side than the other. Just eyeball which direction gives you the clearance.

Yes, I've installed them wrong before. The kind of mistake you don't want to make twice.

[special-K]

There are tips made for that,as mentioned,but usually you can rotate the shaft to the one sweet spot..bottom. If you jack the rear up by the frame and let the axle droop it will make more room,too

[mancad]

Thanks for the good suggestions. I thought I'd been around some, but had never heard of these adapters.

[motorcritter]

I had a customer (years ago) who had a Ramcharger- Chrysler made an extension for grease guns to lube the u-joints. It looked like a nipple fitting on one end, a narrow tube about 3" long and a regular grease gun fitting on the end- sort of an extension for the gun. He'd give it to is whenever he brought it in for service, told us he got it from a Dodge dealership parts department, it was a service tool. I used to press him for the part number, but he passed away before he got that info to me. Perhaps one of MoPar-knowledgeable guys will know about it.

[71Dually]

Lots of great ideas and suggestions. They all sound like they will work.

I need one of those Mopar tools, sounds like it will make life easier. At the very least it will give the wife a reason to exclaim her infamous, "more tools, again?"

I have a 71 C30 157" WB Custom Camper Cab & Chassis. It has a 2 piece drive shaft. I encountered the same situation. It had a heavy motorhome on it so I couldn't try Special-K's suggestion of jacking up the frame and dangling the rear end on the springs but now the motorhome is gone I will be trying that at my next lube job.

I don't recall having a problem with the transmission yoke u-joint on the front driveshaft, but I did encounter problems with the rear driveshaft.

What I did the first time was drop the rear shaft from the pinion. That gave lots of clearance for the grease gun. For the rear u-joint I gently held the pinion yoke cups with a c-clamp and lubed everything up proper. Then correctly orienting the rear u-joint to the pinion yoke installed the u-bolts and torqued it all up. A little more work than a special connector but for me, it worked like a charm.

[mancad]

Just to follow up. I got a Grease Gun Needle Nose Adapter from O'Reilly's that did the job. It has to be held just right against the zerk to make a seal but it worked well.