Spicer Ujoint after about 2 years

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Dec 19, 2004
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New Orleans La
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sorry for the big picture. This is the rear ujoint on my 2006 Tacoma. It was about 2 years old. At the time the ujoint behind the hanger bearing dried out and started vibrating. So while I was under there I replaced all three and the hanger bearing. I figured while under there replace everything and I would have to worry about it anymore. One day I felt a vibration and crawled under and find this. When I replaced the ujoints I used Valvoline grease. I guess the failure is probably because I drove through high water a month or so earlier and moister must have entered though the low profile grease zerk shown on the end cap which aren't air tight. I placed ujoint and this time used Redline grease and then flushed out the other two.
 
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Wow! The spider is cracked, seal gone bad and the dreaded powdered rust. I don't believe the moisture came in the zerk, that seal has been bad for some time. I hope you didn't use the same u joints because they appear to be junk. Sure does indicate quality control has gone down the drain.
 
Dumb luck has always been on my side with U joints I guess. I use a grease containing moly which isn’t recommended, pressure wash everything with a steam cleaner often and still only put some grease in when I change oil. I run anything from a pickup to a dump truck and OTR trucks and multiple pieces of farm equipment. I don’t recall ever having a failure of my own that wasn’t already out on a previous owner.
 
Last year I replaced all 3 of my ujoints using Spicer on my 1991 Ranger. I hope I do not have a issue like you. The old original one were very tough to remove. Sorry for your bad luck!
 
I never have used Spicer and would never expect a failure so soon from them. I personally use Neapco and once replaced, I never had another problem.
 
Wow! The spider is cracked, seal gone bad and the dreaded powdered rust. I don't believe the moisture came in the zerk, that seal has been bad for some time. I hope you didn't use the same u joints because they appear to be junk. Sure does indicate quality control has gone down the drain.
Not certain this failure is a quality control issue.

"drove through high water last month"...

OP has it been greased at all in the two years since it was put in there?
 
Valvoline makes at lease 7 types of automotive grease. Which one did you use?The other issue is how did you grease it? I understand you want to see grease coming out of all four caps and then some. More photos would help.
 
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Not certain this failure is a quality control issue.

"drove through high water last month"...

OP has it been greased at all in the two years since it was put in there?
Toyota recommends greasing the oem (spicer) u-joints every 5,000 miles. It doesn’t sound like he has.
 
That's unexpected. With my Jeep, I've learned the ONLY u joints I can use that will not fail quickly are Spicer sealed joints. Spicer greaseable, or ANY other greaseable/non greaseable joints always have this exact failure for me. My Jeep sees frequent water crossings. In fact in the fall I went through water so deep my butt got wet! And the spicer joints are holding up fine, even the older ones.
 
That's unexpected. With my Jeep, I've learned the ONLY u joints I can use that will not fail quickly are Spicer sealed joints. Spicer greaseable, or ANY other greaseable/non greaseable joints always have this exact failure for me. My Jeep sees frequent water crossings. In fact in the fall I went through water so deep my butt got wet! And the spicer joints are holding up fine, even the older ones.
Agreed. In my experience sealed u joints have lasted longer than greasable ones as well.
 
I agree with you as far as the rust, but what about the seal? Looks pretty bad for 2 years old.
Not if there was water ingress. Any rust by the seal will quickly destroy it letting even more moisture in.

If it came with greasable u joints stock then the manual almost certainly has a disclaimer about purging them ASAP in case of submersion.

OP may also want to take a look at his diffs to make sure there's no water in them.
 
Agreed. In my experience sealed u joints have lasted longer than greasable ones as well.
Never had any luck with greaseable joints. I went through that phase in my Jeep where I thought greaseable would be the answer and greasing them up after every trip would prevent problems. What ended up happening is at least one passage would dry up. Because greaseable joints don't have as good of seals it will let water in and the trunions that don't get grease will fail quick.
 
I’m curious about the failure mode of those seals.

Did they fail and let water in or grease out, causing the u joint failure?

Or did the u joint fail, and when the needle bearing heated up, did that destroy those seals?

Correlation for sure, but in which direction did the causality flow?
 
P has it been greased at all in the two years since it was put in there?

No. installed and pumped grease until it came out all four seals.


Valvoline makes at lease 7 types of automotive grease. Which one did you use?

I can't recall, but it wasn't synthetic. I bought it from Autozone IIRC as it was the only local place that had the grease spec in the manual.


Spicer is usually very good. When you grease them do you see grease come out all 4 caps?

Yeap.



Did they fail and let water in or grease out, causing the u joint failure? Or did the u joint fail, and when the needle bearing heated up, did that destroy those seals?Correlation for sure, but in which direction did the causality flow?

No way know for sure which. Now that you mentioned it makes me wonder if the zerk let grease out from the spinning force. I was kind of surprised during the install when I put on of the zerks between my lips (yes it was cleaned) and how it didn't do much to keep air from passing though.

that was the best pick of the rear ujoint. This is the front. Yes the seal was changed when I changed the rear rear joint. Guess I need get under there more.
 

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Grease that more often and if you do go through some water like that grease it right after and purge the water and old grease out
 
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