Drive Shaft Questions

[Jenny Cruiser]

I've been reading up on the propeller shaft lube proceedures, in/out of phase mumbo jumbo and a few other things now that I have spare shafts to play with. LSS - The shafts out of my 93 are in better shape than my 94's shafts. I'd like to put them in, but I was wondering if it mattered how I bolted them up. Am I OK to just put them in as long as the front is out of phase and the rear is in phase, or is there something I need to match up for whatever reason?

Also, when I lube the inner splines what am I looking for to be sure I won't have a "hydrolocking" problem as described on Mud?

 

[nakman]

What you don't want is a pile of grease buried in the hole under that zirc deal, that prevents the spline from shoving into the shaft further. since you have it out, I'd pull that zirc, then pull the shaft apart, then dry to dig all that old grease out of there. Then lube the splines by hand, then shove it together. You'll see that when you shove grease in through the zirc, you're just filling the hole.

Nothing else you need to match up other than having the yokes pointed in the right direction, sounds like you got that though. Also putting the splines toward the t-case. Also remember to loosen/tighted the bolts, not the nuts when removing and installing the shafts. The nuts have little teeth on them that bite into the pinion flange. And the torque spec on those is a lot, like 55 ft pounds iirc. hth..

 

[Jenny Cruiser]

Thanks. I can see why the FSM indicates to put match marks on the sleeve yoke and flange as well as the sleeve yoke and shaft, but don't understand why it aslo says to mark the flanges. I guess it's so you don't get the splines pointed the wrong way.

I read about the serrated nut thing, but neither the bolts nor the nuts are serrated on mine. I loosened half of them from the bolt side as per the FAQ suggestion regarding the serrated nuts, but nearly stripped a couple that would not move. Loosening from the nut side took less torque.

 

[Seldom Seen]

Third Gen 4Runner guys heed the warning !!! In all the times I've greased the splines I have never seen any old grease work it's way out, so I'd give it a few squirts and call it good. I read through the thread on Mud and today I tore into it to see what's up. Sure 'nuff there is a seal on the rear shaft at the slip yoke. when I tore it down all I found on the splines was dried up old grease. I had less than an inch of compression left on the shaft. Cleaned it out the best I could greased the splines by hand and put it back together. Couldn't get it to compress enough to get it back in, so I pulled the Zerk and a bunch more old grease came out the hole. Pulled it back apart, added some more grease to the splines and slipped it back together. This time a bit more old stuff came out the Zerk hole then some new grease. I was able to get full compression and extension by hand with the Zerk back in so I called it good.