Greasing advice

[09FordRanger]

Gents,

Could use some advice here. Greasing the undercarriage of my recently acquired 66 MUTT. My first time through this particular type of vehicle and I've never been the most experienced mechanic. I suspect that it has been sitting for a while but I have no way of checking. That also includes having no idea last time it was greased. .
Anyway here's my questions. I've started on what the Lub Order calls the Rear Axle Drive Universal Joint (half-shafts in my world). Started pumping grease into the middle fitting (the one actually on the shaft). I figured I'd see old grease being forced out somewhere but, after a fair amount of grease pumped in, I'm not seeing anything anywhere. Shouldn't I see old grease coming out somewhere? If so, where should I be looking? Kind of the same questions for the U-joints at each end of the shaft. What should I be looking for as the sign that I've pumped enough grease? Does every fitting have a exit point for old grease?
I know this should be basic stuff but first time through with this vehicle so I don't want to do something stupid (as I have so often in the past). Any thoughts and insights are greatly appreciated.
Close to driving!!
Thanks.

[rickf]

The ujoints are the same as any other, the grease will show at the edges of the joint. On the axles I usually just give them three pumps and done. But there is a relief fitting on one end of the shaft, the female end of the shaft. That fitting will let grease escape so the shaft is not damaged by excess pressure when compressing. BUT, If you have never had these axles out or apart it might be a good idea to take them out, remove the large nut at the center where the slip point is and separate the two halves and completely clean out all of the old grease. They tend to be full of hardened old grease and it can actually break or cause accelerated wear on the joints from pressure. Once cleaned up then grease the splines well by hand and put it back together and add a few pumps and you are done. It is not a fun job but you will only have to do it once. If you take it apart and it is full of soft clean grease and no hardened grease then no need to clean it all out, just make sure it will compress all the way.

[raymond]

For the axle u joints, get a mini grease gun and put a needle on it
Makes greasing the axle u joints much easier, especially the ones by the wheels.

[Horst]

I do agree with Rick‘s advice. Go the extra mile and remove all drive shafts. Even if grease comes out of the caps for example, it still can be that there is rust in the needles and cleaning them is in order. And all that old hard grease needs to be removed. Just don’t loose any of the bearing rollers, other than that it is just work you can do with basic tools.

[70mford151a2]

I will share what I did and don't want to repeat when I put new axle bearings on my MUTT., I separated the shafts and cleaned them all. I put them back together, and while it was on the mutt all extended I pumped it full of grease.
Then I filled the universals and away I went and the 1st hole I hit bounced me up and pushed all that extra grease right out of the shafts. so the moral of the story is Always ask if you don't know or plan on wasting a lot of axle grease. I was happy to see this post, now I know how much to put back in. thanks Rick

[Lou]

Learned my lesson with those shafts as well. When we first got the mutt in 2004 had to replace one (splines were shot on both ends and had play). Thought I was smart and greased the spline before installing the shaft. The mutt was on the ground and could not compress the shaft enough to reinstall it. (newbie mistake).

Had to loosen the nut on the shaft to allow grease to leak out so the shaft could be compressed!