Where to find zerk fittings and possibility of reviving splines

[mrdoug]

The front drive shaft on my 85 has a screw or something in place of the zerk fitting on the front drive shaft. Because of this and the fact that my rear drive shaft splines were full of dirt, I'm curious if I can:
1) replace the screw with a zerk fitting and if so, should I just go to a junk yard and yank it out of any drive shaft I can find? or ??

2) pull the drive shaft apart (marking it first for reassembly) clean it, grease it and hopefully save the poor sorry thing.

This front end (ok, the whole truck) was poorly maintained before I got a hold of the truck. Little to no grease in the u-joints and the front pinion is leaking pretty bad so hopefully I've just blown a seal. I've pumped fresh grease thru the u-joints altho it would only come out 1 of the 4 exit points on the diff end of the drive shaft. The grease flowed smootly (albeit nasty brown ribbons) out of all 4 spots on both parts of the CV up by the diff.

I've been driving it locally around town with the front hubs unlocked, but the diff set in 4wd to hopefully exercise the ujoints up by the front diff to get the grease to work itself around. I'm wondering if I'm doing any good.

When I took the rear drive shaft in to Boulder Driveline, the ujoints and splines were trashed and ended up only using the flanges from the rear. I'm really hoping to not have to pay for a whole new front shaft. Please tell me it's all going to be ok.

[ike]

any auto parts store will have zerk fittings. The thing that i would be afraid of is the condition of the threads where that screw is. I just hope that when you take it out to replace it with a zerk you are able to get the zerk in.

[mgoose82]

just take the bolt with you and get the zerk in the same size and thread count as the bolt then you shouldn't have a problem with it. they're made just like bolts in that you can get them in almost any size with a variety of thread counts.

also, i wouldn't hurt to remove the front shaft, take it apart and clean it up. my guess is that it's probably in a similar condition as the rest of the drivetrain was in.

[RedRunnertc]

x3 - Ace or just about any autoparts place will have zerks ... I think Molly has a bunch too if you just want to buy one from her...

[Jacket]

Metric zerks are a bit harder to find, but I found some at Checker. My local Ace only had 1/4" and up English.

[RedRunnertc]

With the way his truck is put together, they're probably inch threads anyways

[bluetaco]

Hey Doug if you are still looking I have a variety of Zerk fittings.

[mrdoug]

I still need them, but I'm not actively worrying about it at this point. Got bigger fish to fry (like installing a new radiator in the bed, moving the motor and dropping a body lift). But thanks for the offer. I'll keep it in mind when I get around to these things.