Disappearing grease in universal
 

When I put the universal in originaly, I packed the casing with grease. Now 1300 miles later I pumped 6 more shots in with my grease gun. If I do this every so often where does the old grease go? I don't see it squeese out like other joints. Bill G

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

When you pump the grease have a speedometer drive bolt removed. If the unit gets pressurized the grease is forced into the tranny or passes by a weak driveshaft seal.

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

I take off the speedometer drive. When I see grease, I stop pumping. If you pump too much it can go up the speedometer cable into the speedometer!!

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

It's going up your speedo cable. Pump enough and you will see it in your speedo window. You don't want that.

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

This apparently is fairly common. With an original style non sealed bearing, transmission oil will pass thru and mix with the u-joint grease.
Many a transmission has been filled with grease unknowingly. It could also end up in the torque tube, speedo housing or thrown out past the felts.
I now remove the speedo drive anytime I pump grease into the clam shell.

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

My Tudor has the old u-joint grease come out the felts where the clamshell clamps around the front of the torque tube. It usually comes out slowly as the joint moves while driving, so you don't notice. In fact, if I wasn't so OCD about my stuff, and the tudor being a nearly fine point car, I would probably never notice it.

Like the guys mentioned above, if your Model A has some wear on it, when pumping grease in, the excess could work its way into the torque tube, speedometer cable, etc. If grease makes its way into the speedometer itself, you have way overdone it.

Each time I lube the chassis, I just put 2 pumps into the u-joint housing. Since it is already full and also gets some of the tranny fluid through the shafts, adding just 2 pumps of grease each time is plenty.

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

And if your using a chassis or high temp grease , none of it is getting into the u-joint bearings.

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

If the transmission has an original style bearing then a bit of the the oil is mixing with the grease as previously stated.

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

Patrick,
You make a good point. If the transmission is sealed, the u-joint doesn't get any transmission oil. I think I need to pump a small amount of gear oil into the u-joint annually to augment the grease because I did seal the transmission in my 190A.

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

You're right. I mix grease with oil to make a 'goop' [ technical term] and keep it in dedicated gun. Kinda like when I was a kid we had a gun full of 140 weight for that little grease fitting on the steering boxes.

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

Wow, was wondering how to know too much grease.
Thanks so much

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

It would be a good idea to pull the tranny cover. You may be shocked at how much grease
is in it. Then, then next question is; “Where did all the tranny fluid go?”

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

Same thing happened to me when I last checked fluid levels. Found tranny full of grease and no sign of the displaced gear oil.:confused:


I am another one who upon advice of those on the forums packed the u joint full of grease upon assembly and later with the speedo gear off and pumped until visible. From now on, I’ll just give the u joint a pump or two once a year.

Re: Disappearing grease in universal
 

Ford used gear oil conservatively mixed with soda soap for a semi-fluidic form of lubricant. In the modern era, many folks use John Deer Corn header grease that is a modern thixotropic lubricant which is also a semi-fluidic grease. It goes in and stays in better. It's also better at permeating the bushings in the U-joint while in motion. The stuff solidifies a bit after motion stops.

Regular grease stays solid and just gets pushed out of the way by centrifugal forces. The bushings don't get lubed very well with that stuff.