I have JE Reel 1310 shafts front and real and its coming up on time to regrease them (Per mfg. recommendation). I'm looking for any tips and tricks on doing this. I've heard that it can be easier just to remove the shaft to have better access to all the zerks, especially the flat one that lubes the center ball. Although I played hell trying to get those fine thread bolts in without cross threading when I originally installed them and dont really want to fight them again...haha. I know first hand what can happen if it drys out and a CV joint catastorphically fails. Try traveling south bound on I-15 down the Cajon Pass and having the front driveshaft of your 2001 International 4800 fire truck let go at 65 miles an hour. You have about 10 seconds to figure out what that sudden vibration is before a loud BANG! (front pinion shaft, 1 1/4", sheering) and 7 gallons of oil are dumped onto the roadway. Lots of smoke and alarms going off. Fortunately no accident occured (neither us or other cars in the oil) and we made off the freeway safe to find out what happened. I hope to never experience this in my jeep so I plan on regreasing at every oil change unless I've been in alot of mud, water, or doing alot of wheeling. Thanks in advance for the help, any advice or tips are appreciated.

 

With my J.E Reel I was able to use a needle nose adapter on my grease gun and was able to get to all the zerks with it installed.

 

How long was ur needle adapter? Mine is 3-4" long. Would the 90 deg adapter make it easier?

 

It is maybe 1.5" the one that was hard was the center ball one you have to get at it from the side or you can't reach it.

 

Yeah I figured that would be the hardest one to get. We'll see how it goes. I've searched everywhere for needle adapters and that seems to be the best one I've found. The one I have I don't think is pointy enough to depress the ball in the flat zerks. So I got another which has more of a point.

 

Any chance you could post a couple of pics. I just got one one these driveshafts. Want to make sure it lasts. I see the zerk on the tube and one one the front but not anything on the double joint.

 

Yes I can give me a few mins and ill go crawl under there and point them out. Mine were covered with paint. If I remember correctly there are 3 on the CV joint. 1 on each u-joint and 1 for the center ball.

 

They are not standard zerk fittings they are little ones that use a needle nose adapter to fill.

 

Here are the pics I've been meaning to post. Also I tried to hit the center ball zerk and unless my fabricated needle adapter will work looks like I'm gonna have to pull the DS to grease it. This is the CV joint on the rear shaft. I can't seem to locate and zerks on the front shaft CV joint am I missing something? I seem to remember them when I installed it.

 

Thanks for posting the pics. A big help. : beer