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Driveshaft clunk

btfarm

btfarm

America First!
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Sandwich, Illinois
Got slip yoke clunk pretty bad in the wife's '07 Tahoe.
I see we are supposed to use Steelco Industrial Lubricants Inc. 488-1 Red Crown Lubricant. Any good alternative?
 
I ordered the GM lubricant because it's compatible with Auto Trak II transfer case oil that I will be draining and refilling but the real fix is the replacement Spicer nickle plated slip yoke. I ordered one from Drivetrain America along with a couple of new U-Joints while I'm at it.
 
I bought one of them special yokes for my BURB, made NO difference what so ever. Still clunks every now and again. I use LUCAS red and tacky as that is what is in my grease guns.
 
I would go with the special grease. I am not usually brand loyal for the sake of brand but other times a product stands out as a better match for specific applications.

I googled the grease and it looks like it will stay put with little to no bleed. Maybe other brands would work with similar characteristics like a TRC paragon grease iirc. It might be an alternative. I've read its suppose to have little to no bleed and has a high Timken load test, stable workability, and resistant to wash out. It also won some industrial maintenance awards but doesn't mention being synthetic so for compatibility I don't know.

In this application I bet a little specialized grease will hold up better than retail grease. Any ole retail grease might work but require more frequent lube and might contaminate other lube.


My bet is GM found this grease to fix the clunk better and it won the bid so to speak (after the fact not original design). Similar to what happened with Castrol Syntorq in the NV4500. And how in these applications manufacturers get to keep their trade names involved.
 
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GM grease should be delivered today. I'm not doing the work until next weekend though. I have the yoke and u joints already.
 
schiker said:
I would go with the special grease. I am not usually brand loyal for the sake of brand but other times a product stands out as a better match for specific applications.

I googled the grease and it looks like it will stay put with little to no bleed. Maybe other brands would work with similar characteristics like a TRC paragon grease iirc. It might be an alternative. I've read its suppose to have little to no bleed and has a high Timken load test, stable workability, and resistant to wash out. It also won some industrial maintenance awards but doesn't mention being synthetic so for compatibility I don't know.

In this application I bet a little specialized grease will hold up better than retail grease. Any ole retail grease might work but require more frequent lube and might contaminate other lube.


My bet is GM found this grease to fix the clunk better and it won the bid so to speak (after the fact not original design). Similar to what happened with Castrol Syntorq in the NV4500. And how in these applications manufacturers get to keep their trade names involved.
Click to expand...

Oil companies will specifically engineer oils and lubes for companies. An oil company I worked for dealt with GM frequently. R&D will be covered if enough quantities are ordered.
 
Just chatting....

True but really just guessing I wouldn't think Steelco Industrial Lubricants Inc. 488-1 Red Crown Lubricant was specifically engineered for the clunk.

I don't know but expect it was a heavy industry: paper or steel mill product that fit the bill for GM. I don't think the yoke had any new material issues its just a weird harmonic thing isn't it that clunks when the driveline unloads from inertia and braking??? The grease just dampens the transmission of energy/noise of the clunk???

GM just needed a really good EP grease with adhesion/cohesion and washout resistance. The yoke does spin fast and changes load direction with compression braking so workability needed to be good too. It can't separate or other break down from hammering it. Its not like a wheel bearing grease with high speed shear and high temp either as its really a more static load in relation to the force I would think.

I guess steelco could have developed it for GM and mass marketed it since they were making enough of it that some more might push it to a more standard offering and be good for others too. But in this case I suspect it was a good compromise of cost and quality that steelco helped them find.

2 clutch jobs ago I separated my transmission and transfer case and the splines between the two had some old grease. It had hardened or washed out the lube oil and left majority of the thickener. In hind sight I guess it looked like a soap or clay thickener so ???? on what grease it was. I wondered if it was not the correct grease or wasn't suppose to be there (I think the connection was suppose to be splash lubricated)????

Mike post back what you find. Whether the old grease is gone or separated thickener maybe powdered or what ever you see. And any details you can include like was this the original grease etc.

Is this a TSSB where there is a maintenance interval or as needed remove yoke clean and repack grease?????

What did other yokes get lubed with previously???

I thought about a similar application is the splines of the outdrive into the coupler of the engine for Mercruiser I/O powered boats. They recommend a quicksilver grease for it. I think the boat may spin faster and may need more water washout resistance and the slip yoke needs more washout resistance to the oil lube of the transfer case????
 
Well, the boat coupler shouldn't get wet but its a high speed spline connection. Its not in an oil splash though like the yoke.

Lots of PTO driven stuff has spline grease.

The key here I think may be wash out from the transfer case oil, staying put, not getting hammered to butter, or thickening up too much from bleed loss in combination with hammering????
 
I did the TC and rear differential fluids along with oil change and lube. When I pulled the wheels to do a tire rotate I saw that the rear brakes were completely shot, I already had the pads for it so those got done. I was pressed for time and not real confident on doing the slip yoke end u-joint since it didn't have snap rings as locators so I just lubed up the spline and reinstalled the driveshaft. The grease worked. End of clunk... Surprised me. I'll see about getting somebody that has done the front u-joint before to do it. My little 16T press didn't seem to want the job and I didn't want to wreck the drive shaft.
 
If its the one with no snap rings, you need a torch to do them. If yout them in a press, you'll just break the ends of the driveshaft. GM glued them in with a nylon rope material, you have to burn it out to do the u-joints.
 
Yeah I figured they were gonna be too difficult and I ran the risk of wrecking the driveshaft. I wondered about the nylon plugs. Now I know. I only put enough press force on them to see if they moved and before I saw any deflection of the ear.
 
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