Greasing OEM U Joints

[5hunert]

What is the best way to grease original equipment u joints?  My 69 charger still has what I believe to be the factory U joints, with  no grease fittings. They are still tight but have got to be dry by now.  The best I can figure is to drill a hole in a cap and install a zert. Has anyone done this or is there a better way?

[BLK 68 R/T]

Install new greasable u-joints, keep your old ones on the shelf if you would like. There is debate on whether the ones you cant grease are stronger than the greasable ones due to the internal passages. I would doubt your car has the original ones in it, unless it is low miles, after this amount of time...47 years is a long time for a component like that to last!

thats my 

[Dino]

I agree. If the U joinr is that old I'd just replace it or run it until it smokes.   

My non-greasable U joint went kaboom fairly quick by the way and this greasable one has way more miles on it so far. Not saying I have enough data to make a correlation, only that a greasable fitting doesn't mean they're crap.

[5hunert]

Thanks. It's a low mileage car, was parked in '78 with 49k miles. Had lots of factory parts still on it (rad hoses,brake  shoes) so they are likely original joints. For example, there's a tin strap between the two caps on the rear joint that prevents them from falling off when the driveline is out. I just hate to run an original part into the grave if there's a way to save it.

[BLK 68 R/T]

The only way to grease them would be to physically remove the u-joint, pull the caps off and clean all the needle bearings and re-grease before re-assembling. I would soak the caps in a good penetrating oil before I tried removing them from the drive line. But, as I said before, I would keep your originals in a box and install new u-joints. Good luck 

ps: post some pics of your Charger, pretty rare to have an all original one 

[5hunert]

Thanks.  Sounds like replacing them now as preventive maintenance is the key, and putting them in the same box as the radiator hoses, brake shoes and all the other worn factory stuff. 

Now to remove them without trashing them...