What grease are you using?

[STDevil]

To continue flogging the horse...

I was always told to avoid using moly grease with roller bearings in u-joints because they moly might be too slippery and the bearings would not rotate. Of course that is after I had used moly grease in my trusty Toyota 4X4 for 150 k-miles with no problems. Someone else noted this in the thread.

Here's the other weird part:

The XG-11 says it's basically used for all the stuff on the front axle (and contains no moly) including U-Joints. Does this include just the U-joints at the wheels, or the ones on the

The XG-1 says it's for use on, amongst other things, u-joints. I assume this means the rear drivehsaft.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Due to a past grease panic, I now have two grease guns. One with some red lithium grease (for all U-joints), and one with moly for "everything else".

I totally understand the possible implications of mixing incompatible greases, buy I have just decided to use the two greases (I think they are Valvoline or something) as described above.

 

[cookiemonster]

To continue flogging the horse...

I was always told to avoid using moly grease with roller bearings in u-joints because they moly might be too slippery and the bearings would not rotate. Of course that is after I had used moly grease in my trusty Toyota 4X4 for 150 k-miles with no problems. Someone else noted this in the thread.

Here's the other weird part:

The XG-11 says it's basically used for all the stuff on the front axle (and contains no moly) including U-Joints. Does this include just the U-joints at the wheels, or the ones on the

The XG-1 says it's for use on, amongst other things, u-joints. I assume this means the rear drivehsaft.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Due to a past grease panic, I now have two grease guns. One with some red lithium grease (for all U-joints), and one with moly for "everything else".

I totally understand the possible implications of mixing incompatible greases, buy I have just decided to use the two greases (I think they are Valvoline or something) as described above.

My understanding is moly makes things super duper ultra slick. Then the danger when using moly not in high pressure usecases is there's not enough friction for the metals to turn at all. For example you'll potentially end up with flat spots on bearings because the bearings never turn.

My understanding can very likely be wrong, though. I don't know the ins and outs of this, nor how much of this is just myths and superstitions about grease.

Edit: and I see now I just repeated your first paragraph. Sorry about that. My understanding is the same as yours.

 

[STDevil]

My understanding is moly makes things super duper ultra slick. Then the danger when using moly not in high pressure usecases is there's not enough friction for the metals to turn at all. For example you'll potentially end up with flat spots on bearings because the bearings never turn.

My understanding can very likely be wrong, though. I don't know the ins and outs of this, nor how much of this is just myths and superstitions about grease.

Edit: and I see now I just repeated your first paragraph. Sorry about that. My understanding is the same as yours.

No problem. Glad you weighed in. I was wondering: If the mole makes the roller bearing to slippery to roll, will it really wear a flat spot over time? I suppose it could because the sliding will eventually cause a very small bit of wear, but if moly is for sliding surfaces then I would think the wear would be minimal.

Maybe I should call my son who is a ME Student at Cal Poly and ask him...that might take the sting out of all the money I am sending there!

 

[cookiemonster]

No problem. Glad you weighed in. I was wondering: If the mole makes the roller bearing to slippery to roll, will it really wear a flat spot over time? I suppose it could because the sliding will eventually cause a very small bit of wear, but if moly is for sliding surfaces then I would think the wear would be minimal.

Maybe I should call my son who is a ME Student at Cal Poly and ask him...that might take the sting out of all the money I am sending there!

That's the same thought I've had as well - how can there be not enough friction to roll, but enough friction to wear a flat spot? When you think about it that way, it just seems like a superstition / myth.

 

[RedZilla]

That's the same thought I've had as well - how can there be not enough friction to roll, but enough friction to wear a flat spot? When you think about it that way, it just seems like a superstition / myth.

I think myth is a good descriptor. There are two sources of friction or drag. That on rolling surface of the bearing and that on the point of support or control of the rollers. In my opinion if there is more friction or drag at the point of support than on the rolling surface, there is already a failure occurring in the bearing that is causing the roller to stay stationary. The rolling surface should always have a larger surface area than the support area. Also the support area of the assembly is subject to the same lubrication as the rolling surface. My thoughts.

 

[cookiemonster]

So finally got under the truck today to grease those two fittings. I've only done the driver's side, but my experience was one seal immediately started having grease pushed out.

I've read you want all 4 to have grease come out, so I kept pumping. Eventually I got grease from all 4, but only tiny bits compared to the massive blob coming out of the initial seal.

Should I keep going until all 4 have pushed out the new grease? Factory was red, and mine is green, so I'd know when it's new grease.

For anyone here now that was interested, or anyone that stumbles on this thread in the future looking for help - I ended up watching a few Spicer U Joint lubrication videos to figure out what was going on (youtube video here).

Our 4x4 drive shaft has a Spicer sticker on it, so I assumed the U Joint is Spicer as well and just kept pumping away. Fortunately I eventually got new grease coming from every seal. Not much of the old grease seemed to get pushed out, so I likely should have done this a few thousand miles ago (I'm at 9000 now). I'm mostly "severe duty" driving with towing and off roading.

 

[BDTremor]

Would someone be able to post a picture of where these grease zerks are located on the front end of the truck? I’ve looked along the axle but can’t seem to find them. I guess I’m not sure what I’m looking for.

 

[ccw]

Would someone be able to post a picture of where these grease zerks are located on the front end of the truck? I’ve looked along the axle but can’t seem to find them. I guess I’m not sure what I’m looking for.

Not in a spot to grab a picture, but there's on in each U-Joint at the ends of the axle, right next to the wheels. You might have to rotate the axle a bit to see them. To do that you'll need to lock the hub and turn the wheel, either by rolling the truck or rotating the tire if its in the air.

 

[MTUcrash]

Not in a spot to grab a picture, but there's on in each U-Joint at the ends of the axle, right next to the wheels. You might have to rotate the axle a bit to see them. To do that you'll need to lock the hub and turn the wheel, either by rolling the truck or rotating the tire if its in the air.

Or spin the front drive shaft by hand with the hubs unlocked and in 2wd.
Might even be able to spin each half shaft by hand at the u-joint using your fingers (at least I can on my Dana 60 in my mud truck, haven’t tried the tremor yet.

 

[ccw]

Or spin the front drive shaft by hand with the hubs unlocked and in 2wd.
Might even be able to spin each half shaft by hand at the u-joint using your fingers (at least I can on my Dana 60 in my mud truck, haven’t tried the tremor yet.

Huh. Well that would have been easier than rolling my truck back and forth in the driveway hoping I moved it the right amount lol.

Good tip!

 

[Himni]

Would someone be able to post a picture of where these grease zerks are located on the front end of the truck? I’ve looked along the axle but can’t seem to find them. I guess I’m not sure what I’m looking for.

@BroncoHooves posted photos of his after he put protective caps/covers on. Maybe he can post them again or point to the post.

 

[ccw]

@BroncoHooves posted photos of his after he put protective caps/covers on. Maybe he can post them again or point to the post.

Ah good memory. Here’s the post:

Installed some grease zerk caps on the front U joints.

@ccw

Red Zeppelin Build

Painted front hubs are done. Pics without and with hub cap installed. @Vecman @Lunch Box Will be doing black, non-swelling lug nuts next to tie it all together. :cool: Yep, that made a big difference. Well done! On my list of things to do next week. Thanks @BroncoHooves!

www.fordtremor.com

 

[BDTremor]

Ah good memory. Here’s the post:

Red Zeppelin Build

Painted front hubs are done. Pics without and with hub cap installed. @Vecman @Lunch Box Will be doing black, non-swelling lug nuts next to tie it all together. :cool: Yep, that made a big difference. Well done! On my list of things to do next week. Thanks @BroncoHooves!

www.fordtremor.com

Thank you this helps a lot! Are there only two of these up front—one on each U joint? I’m assuming the back doesn’t have any. Is that true?

 

[ccw]

Thank you this helps a lot! Are there only two of these up front—one on each U joint? I’m assuming the back doesn’t have any. Is that true?

Correct for the F-250 and F-350. Those are the only two zerks on the truck from the factory.

The F-450 and larger trucks have notably more zerks on them around the front end (something like 9 zerks total?).

 

[Willie]

I went under the truck this afternoon with a grease gun. I could only find two zerk fittings at each end of the front axle where it connects at each wheel. I have a 2022 Tremor. Is that it, or does anyone know of any more? My last F250 had at least seven zerk fittings.

 

[cookiemonster]

I went under the truck this afternoon with a grease gun. I could only find two zerk fittings at each end of the front axle where it connects at each wheel. I have a 2022 Tremor. Is that it, or does anyone know of any more? My last F250 had at least seven zerk fittings.

Consensus seems to be just those 2 for stock.

 

[ccw]

I went under the truck this afternoon with a grease gun. I could only find two zerk fittings at each end of the front axle where it connects at each wheel. I have a 2022 Tremor. Is that it, or does anyone know of any more? My last F250 had at least seven zerk fittings.

Consensus seems to be just those 2 for stock.

Correct. It's just those two for F-250/350. The F-450 has something like 9 zerks in the front.

 

[slimcubby]

Here’s a good video that shows all the zerks on the upper super duty (we’ll only do the 2).

 

[yArdbird]

Help please. I recently purchased the lube shuttle system and crawled under the truck today to hit everything on the front end.

Hit the front u-joints without issues, but ran into trouble with the Carli sway bar end links. I was met with a lot of resistance and it didn’t seem like any grease was getting past the zerk fittings. Has anyone else experienced this? Am I doing something wrong? What should I try?

Overall I am very pleased with the lube shuttle system.