What grease for my spicer u-joints 2500 diesel?

[RateNate]

Give you a recommendation just based on hundreds of Cardan shafts with U joints all over the lumber industry I have had to design and make last.

The basic joint itself is a needle bearing application where the rolling media and surfaces are hardened.

Any good grade EP grease will suffice as far as the basic tribological requirements go but then comes the loads specific to the application.

Technically the grease could last whatever the L-10 for the joint is but that's only measures in a lab at steady state and at 0 alignment deflection ( most joints can tolerate up to 21 degrees thereabouts)

As each one of those changes- the lubricant needs change so what you may need to do is look at the replenishment frequency to keep good "front line" grease in there as your load profile requires ( which may be radically different than the guy next door with the same truck). Of course the purging helps too.

I believe that activity and assessment will benefit you more in performance and reliability over the long game than hunting for a better grease.

Good point... I rarely haul with the truck at all its mostly just used for hay and dump runs with mostly highway time. It squeaks when shifting from D to N or P or any other from what I noticed when parked or stopped. I usually come to a complete stop before shifting the Drive mode.

 

[RateNate]

Spicer recommends Spicer ultra premium synthetic grease, Chevron Ultra Duty EP2, or compatible lithium based NLGI 2 grease. I have used multiple brands of grease lithium with and without moly over the years and the most important thing is to keep them greased and make sure all 4 caps are taking grease.

Hmm alright so this green XD lucas would be fine then? I just need to pump until I see grease coming out from all 4 caps then, I only see it coming from 3 caps or less on 2 of my ujoints.

 

[RateNate]

If they squeak in 5,000 miles after greasing.....Somethings wrong. The "Blue Seal" Spicers don't seal very well, You need top of the line non-serviceable Spicers with the White seals & thrust washers.

Originally Posted by RateNate
Hey everyone this is for my cummins truck, I had a shop change my original ujoints and they put in a greaseable spicer brand they told me.
The reason im asking this simple question about what grease to use is that I sometimes have floods over some backroads where I live in the winter here in norcal near some farm land and they do flood bad and it gets to my ujoints for sure, and so I was wondering if I could just use one brand and be good or change the grease out to something else during the winter? Currently I have lucas extra HD grease the green stuff in my ujoints, is this alright for my application?
I currently grease it every 5k but I have noticed they start squeaking before that and when new grease goes in it stops for about 3-4k, and also do I pump grease until it purges out or would I pump it a few times and be done? Thank you!



You might try and grease you joints really well and remove the zerks and put in plugs. Personally, the zerks I've had were not water proof as I can blow air though easily them with whatever pressure my lungs can produce. I had a rear spicer go out in about 3 years, it was several months after I drove in a small flood. Since I've switched to Redline grease.

I have done about 10 pumps one time but I have noticed grease doesnt come out of all the caps when doing so...

 

[Snagglefoot]

This.

 

[naterbomb]

Hmm alright so this green XD lucas would be fine then? I just need to pump until I see grease coming out from all 4 caps then, I only see it coming from 3 caps or less on 2 of my ujoints.

Yeah the Lucas X-tra grease will be good for your u-joints. Make sure all 4 caps are getting grease or eventually that cap that is not taking grease will be the bearing that fails. Sometimes you call can tap on the cap not taking grease with a ball peen hammer while greasing and they will start taking or in some clogged joints you can try a grease buster or zapper.

 

[Trav]

I have been using Schaeffers 219 green waterproof grease on high stress needle bearings found in inner tripod joints, no issues so far.
I talked to them about needle bearing compatibility because of the moly content, they said this sort of moly does not cause problems.

SynForce™ Green Waterproof Green | Schaeffer Oil

Schaeffer's Oil SynForce Green Grease is a waterproof, multi-purpose, extreme pressure grease suited for harsh working environments.

www.schaefferoil.com

Edit: I run NLGI #1 in the joints but for U joints #2 should be fine.

 

[RateNate]

Now my biggest issue would be to get grease purging through all 4 caps, ****. I dont know what steps to take or what to do.
Maybe this was my culprit the whole time. I have 3 seperate ujoints and got it installed a few years ago at a indy, and all 3 have certain caps that wouldnt purge.

 

[naterbomb]

Now my biggest issue would be to get grease purging through all 4 caps, ****. I dont know what steps to take or what to do.
Maybe this was my culprit the whole time. I have 3 seperate ujoints and got it installed a few years ago at a indy, and all 3 have certain caps that wouldnt purge.

We had heavy haul tractors with Spicer SPL250-3X ujoints that would stop taking grease and we let them go until we started having failures to point we had driveshafts coming off under high stress because of only 2 or 3 caps taking grease. Sometimes we could tap the caps with a hammer while greasing or pull the grease fitting and blow air thru the joint to clear them. Sometimes I had to pull the joint out and clean the cross grease paths out and usally when it got to that point we would just replace the ujoint.

 

[RateNate]

So from what ive seen tapping those caps can break them loose so grease can purge through them, I dont have the tools to take the ujoints off the truck unfortunately. Is there any other way to fix the caps not taking grease?

 

[naterbomb]

So from what ive seen tapping those caps can break them loose so grease can purge through them, I dont have the tools to take the ujoints off the truck unfortunately. Is there any other way to fix the caps not taking grease?

Maybe try moving the truck back and forth and greasing the ujoints in different positions or try greasing them after a long drive when they have some heat in them.