How often to grease axle joints etc.?

So I was looking at some Yukon alloy axles for my D30 and noticed that they recommend you grease them every 100-200 miles. WTF? Is that for real? I'm building an expedition vehicle - no way I'd be able to grease them that often.

How often is everyone here doing maintenance like that? I gotta be able to go at least 20k-30k miles before having to stop for that kind of upkeep.

I am asuming you are talking about buying axles including Yukon SuperJoints.
All highstrength U-joints I know of don't use needle bearings and therefore must be greased far more often. Downgrade to regular spicer 760's and
you can just grease them with your oil changes.
If you NEED low maintaince and ultimate strength than you are left with RCVs.
Yukon axles themselves don't exactly need grease...

Yeah I meant the joints.

Ok, what I need is high strength, high reliability and low maintenance. I don't want to be in the middle of the tundra in Canada and have to stop to grease a joint. It sounds like regular 760s will be my best bet. Are there any 760s that can go as long as OEM joints without being greased?

Are there any non-greasable options? It is very easy to contaminate greasable joints in my experience.

All Spicer x760s are non-greasable.

What tire size? They survive just fine on 35s from my limited experience.

Right now it looks like my max tire size will be 33x10.5. I'll have lockers front and rear and when my 4.0 goes I'll be doing a LS1 swap.

Thanks for the input so far I still have a lot to learn.

For some reason I thought the Spicer 760 joints were greasable. Shows what I know.

rvmccarthy said:

For some reason I thought the Spicer 760 joints were greasable. Shows what I know.

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If it makes you feel any better, you had me worried that I somehow missed greasing mine at my last oil change (first one with my new shafts/joints).

ignore

Whats your price range? The guys at RCV say to grease the CV joint every time you change the oil, so every 3k or so miles. Plus the grease fitting is at the end of the shaft sticking out of the hub, so super easy to add grease. They advertise the axles as being unbreakable and have held up to some tough stuff under my Jeep on 35's. Tough to 'contaminate' also because of the design of the CV boot, it's literally air tight.

Changing oil every 3k isn't going to work. I shoot for 5k on my cars generally. I need to plan on a 5k range minimum with zero required maintenance. While it's not likely I'd ever be forced to go that far without the ability to work on the Jeep I demand that level of reliability.

I don't really have a price range. If I can't do it right I won't do it at all. I planned on putting the same amount of money into my XJ as I would into a brand new vehicle (building XJ in lieu of buying something new) so I'd guess when all is said and done I'll have $20k-$30k in it.

I'm building my Jeep as a North American expedition rig and essentially need OEM reliability and ease of maintenance with aftermarket strength and capability.

I'd prefer ungreasable joints to avoid any risk of contamination, though if those boots are as good as you say they'd probably be just fine.

Thanks for replying!

sunburned said:

Whats your price range? The guys at RCV say to grease the CV joint every time you change the oil, so every 3k or so miles. Plus the grease fitting is at the end of the shaft sticking out of the hub, so super easy to add grease. They advertise the axles as being unbreakable and have held up to some tough stuff under my Jeep on 35's. Tough to 'contaminate' also because of the design of the CV boot, it's literally air tight.

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It's the seals on the caps that let the grease out and the water in. Unless it's perfectly sealed you will need to add more grease periodically. Being able to add more grease through a zerk is MUCH easier than disassembling the u-joint to dab it into the caps by hand.

Last autumn I installed a pair of the Alloy X-joints which are solid like the 5-760x but with zerk fittings on the caps so that the bearings can be greased directly. I haven't had a chance to look yet but the last set of 5-760x only lasted one winter so they are at least that good.

If I were going expedition, I'd get a small grease gun and buy a few of the sealed 3oz tubes to carry with me, and run greasable everything

First, I had never thought of that regarding the seals on the caps. I have a newfound appreciation for zerks now. :yelclap:

I'd already planned on carrying a grease gun. I just prefer to do everything I can to avoid actually having to use it! haha

Thanks for the advice and info it's much appreciated. You learn something new every day!

ehall said:

It's the seals on the caps that let the grease out and the water in. Unless it's perfectly sealed you will need to add more grease periodically. Being able to add more grease through a zerk is MUCH easier than disassembling the u-joint to dab it into the caps by hand.

Last autumn I installed a pair of the Alloy X-joints which are solid like the 5-760x but with zerk fittings on the caps so that the bearings can be greased directly. I haven't had a chance to look yet but the last set of 5-760x only lasted one winter so they are at least that good.

If I were going expedition, I'd get a small grease gun and buy a few of the sealed 3oz tubes to carry with me, and run greasable everything

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