Disappearing grease in universal

[Bill Goddard]

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

[harleytoprock]

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.

[Smog Tech]

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!!

[Jacksonlll]

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

[Patrick L.]

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.

[P.S.]

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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.

[harleytoprock]

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

[Patrick L.]

Originally Posted by harleytoprock

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

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

[Bob Bidonde]

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.

[Patrick L.]

Originally Posted by Bob Bidonde

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.

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.