Spicer non grease-able and greasable ujoints

[wazzabie]

I'm looking around for some spicer ujoints for the 1/2 ton K5. Last time I got some were back in the 90;s at napa. The old ones are the greasable style from spicer. Now there are non greasable. Which one is better?

 

[zombie1969]

The none greasable ones are solid throughout and are suposed to be stronger.

 

[Ned Kelly]

One of the 4x4 mags did a ujt strength test about 10yrs ago. They found the solid ones to be about 5% stronger than greasable. I run greasable (open front diff though) just because I feel lubing them keeps them happy, especially if you drive in watery/muddy environments.

 

[1BEATK5]

I'm pretty certain that if it says Spicer on it, it doesn't matter whether its greasable or not

 

[blazinzuk]

Lots of mud or just tons of off road time where there is a decent amount of water and or dirt grime etc= greaseable

Mostly street time with occasional off road jaunts and rocks= non greaseable

 

[6.2Blazer]

I was going to say the strength difference would be very, very small if you did the calculations. The magazine said 5% which is basically nothing, and if you did the statistical analysis on their test that is probably less than the variability (meaning that the one test said 5% less strength, but they repeated the test is may actually say they were stronger...basically the test they did is just not that accurate).

I have greasables in the axle shafts of my D60, and solids in the driveshaft. The K5 rarely gets driven unless it's a trail drive and here in the Midwest there is always a water hole, stream, or mud we deal with. The driveshafts joints have been installed for a few years now and I just recently pulled the caps off the axle end while I had the shaft out....the factory grease was a little darker but that was it. The front shaft u-joints have been installed for probably 7-8 years now and have been removed from a couple of different times when the shafts broke and then re-used...still can't pull the caps off by hand the seals are so tight and never any sign of dirt or water in them.

 

[DEMON44]

The spicer "sealed for life" ujoints are very good. They've got a triple seal in the caps. Very good for folks who may never actually grease, greaseable joints. Just set it and forget it. All of the city of Calgary street sweepers have sealed for life ujoints in them. They last there.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

 

[ryoken]

I've always been old school and liked my ability to do preventative maintenance and grease em.. i was very leery of the sealed when they first came out.... but the boat outdrives at work sold me on the "sealed for life" spicer stuff as being very good... Merc switched to them on their cross-joints, and they live a VERY moist, abusive life, and they hold up great..

as mentioned, if i was running a rig in mud and water a lot, i would probably run greasable just cuz of my hard to break piece of mind habit.. mostly street rig? no question, the sealed..