Which Universal Joints?

[Riveted1]

Was looking at the Napa website, and they have greaseable and non-greaseable U-joints. Which ones do I want? Are the non-greaseable ones made w/some sort of space-age lube so they don't ever go dry? Or are they for lazy people that aren't ever going to grease them anyway?

[C10-Driver]

I'd go with greasable... Anything you can lube should last longer, shouldn't it? I would also go with the higher quality, or heavier duty u-joints... I had a buddy with an '80 K-10 who was going through u-joints way faster than he should... Bought a Spicer product and hasn't replaced it since.

[Longhorn Man]

3 reasons I prefer a sealed U-joint;

1. A sealed U-joint will be stronger than one with a hole for a zerk fitting.

2. If stock U joints without a zerk last 100,000 miles (which they usually do) then it'd good enough for my junk.

3. I'm lazy and don't like the messy grease gun.

[Green Machine]

If you have to install a u-joint with a grease fitting hole in its casting, install the u-joint so the driveshaft torque pushes the hole shut, rather than trying to pull it apart. Takes a little head scratching to get it right. The grease hole is the weak spot in the casting.

No grease holes should be stronger and they really don't need much grease, so non greaseable is better, but harder to find around here anyway.

Napa and likey others have a greaseable HD u-joint that has a needle grease fitting in one of the caps ends, the joint is still cross-drilled but does not have the hole in the middle for the zerk that makes it weak. Below is an example.

http://www.napaonline.com/MasterPage...t+Transmission

[mr48chev]

Unless you are racing or running a serious 4x4 I would believe that the strength thing is a non issue. I've been working on cars and trucks for 46 years and have never seen a u-joint fail through the zerk hole except on the drag strip in a vehicle that was running a lot of horsepower and slicks.

The three reasons that I have seen most U joints fail is that they are run at and excessive angle, lack of lubrication and the third is that the cheap ones with the fatter rollers in the cups (the correct name slips my mind at the moment) tend to fail quicker than the spicer type with the thin rollers.
That excludes racing and dairy farm employee abuse as all bets are off then.
If I were building a rig for racing or serious off road use I would run the high performance U-joints w/o zerks though.

[Riveted1]

Ok, now I'm more confused than I was before. This must be like a Ford vs. Chevy debate. LOL I take it that either will work and which ever ones I get my hands on will be fine, as long as they aren't the cheapy ones....