Change "innie" to "outie" zerk?

[SwampSurvivor]

The front axle U Joints on the Cherokee are due for service. They are greaseable and have an "innie" style grease fitting. Usually I hit them every few months.

When I went to do them this time, I couldn't find my adapter for it. No problem! I went to autozone and bought one. When I try to lube the "innie", it just squirts past the rubber on the adapter. I got one from Napa and Tractory supply ... same problem.

I realized that the "innie" fitting threads in. Tried with various zerks on the Jeep and they all have a larger bore and a coarse thread.

At that point, I went into my bathroom and started sorting through the stack of driveshafts, axle shafts and tie rods. Nothing had the same style fitting.

I found replacement fittings online but they appear to be bigger bore and coarse thread like everything else.

So I have 3 options. I could try to find regular "outie" grease fittings that would work normally. I could remove the wheel bearing, brakes, and press apart the u joints to repack by hand (not fun). Lastly, I could just throw another set of U Joints at it.

I'd hate to throw them out since these are nice quality, made in USA U Joints.

Anyone know if these tiny , fine threaded innies can be replaced with a normal grease fitting?

 

[Kuato]

Since they're screw-in I imagine they can be replaced. But maybe they're designed that way because an "outie" would interfere with the Ujoint motion? I dunno, I have never seen an inward zerk before.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

It could be why it has the inward zerk. It would fit in this application without issue, but another vehicle that uses this size may have interference issues.

I have to do something similar with my greaseable ball joints. The lower ball joint won't clear the axle shaft with the full zerk in.

Really hoping there is a traditional zerk in this thread so I can just lube them.

 

[Kuato]

Hey they make anything, it exists....somewhere.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

It's something proprietary. No one has anything that fits.

So looks like I have to take the brakes off and the wheel bearings out to press apart the u joints.

I am going to put one with some sort of standardized fitting in so I don't have to deal with this again.

 

[ironman_gq]

Most of those are standard sized zerks, my jeep has 4 of them on each axle joint. They use them because the zerk in the cap will hit the lower ball joint if a regular style is used.

The easiest fix is to get joints that have the zerk in the cross of the joint, you need to have the wheel turned to grease them but that's not a problem most of the time.

You can also unscrew the joint and stick the needle adapter in the zerk hole to pump grease into the joint, then just screw the zerk back in when your done.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I ended up going to this chain store "runnings" and picked up a grease needle that is small enough to fit in the fitting, but also is big enough to hold pressure to allow it to purge. Since it doesn't rely on a rubber cap to press the ball and hold pressure, it actually worked.

I have the "innie" style elsewhere, but when it's time to grease them, I just swap on another zerk and use the regular adapter.

They did start to bind a bit but they are still good as far as I can tell. They weren't dry, just full of [censored] old dried up grease.

The grease I used was pink and when it came out it was [censored] black!

oh well, off to lube the rest of the stuff whenever it stops snowing ...

 

[JHZR2]

The question becomes why did the zero stop working? Or what was different about your old grease tool?