I raised my duallies and crawled under to grease my U-joints. Wot to my wondering eyes should appear but no knipples. When did these become throw-aways? I've carried a new spare for quite a while, but now I know why

 

The factory ones are greasable. A non-greasable joint is stronger because it's not cross-drilled.

 

Good point, ...my experience has been that my U-joint bearings went south so I'd still opt for greasables for long life vrs strength. That said I've not had this kind of torque available in previous trucks so I s'pose I'm better off with this.

 

I have done this countless times and can attest to it's effectiveness.

It all started when I bought some pricey U-joints for the joint-eatingest truck ever on the planet---my old Chevy 4x4.

Much to my dismay, they had no provision for greasing.

I removed the needles from each cup and drilled/tapped an Alemite hole dead-center of each cup, then screwed an Alemite in each cup.

Clean out all traces of drill shavings and put back in the needles.

Put the joints in the shaft and pump in the good old Kendall Super Blu grease, the only grease I ever buy.

After previously eating U-joints by the dozens, those modified joints are still in that truck and good as new.

It takes a real sharp bit to drill a cup; plain old HSS bits will do it.

Over the years, I have done this to many other U-joints, even greasable ones.

It is much easier to get the grease-gun on cup-center Alemites, than to find and access the one on the cross that is always not in the right spot to get to it.

 

Wow BK that's an example of why I keep looking into this forum! ... ... I've copy'n'pasted that procedure into MS Word and will do it first on my new spare U-joint, ..this gives me the best of both worlds, cross-piece strength and long-life, ...now where did I put those new nipples I thought I bought.. ??

 

Bear killer, it sounds like you have a patent on your hands. You could pump those out of your garage and sell them mail order.