Pilgrim

2012 Screw 6.5' bed 4x4 2-piece shaft
Have the lag/clunk from stop that so many describe. I took my driveshaft off to do the greasing and was surprised to find it felt very smooth and easy to slide. Does this mean it's ok and I have another problem, or do they all feel loose upon removal, and just bind under driving pressure??
Thanks.
Pilgrim

Tothemax

Mine wasn't bad when I took it apart. Just grease it up and go about your day.

PerryB

^^ They don't bind until there is some torque on them. FWIW, I've had my best results with copper based anti-sieze.

DarkChaos

I just took it off today and greased it with some copper based anti seize as per PerryB, it certainly helped but nonetheless it is still there. I think I might remove the whole shaft and get it rebuilt if it gets worst the next few days.

I also did an rear diff fluid, tranny oil, transfer case oil change today but not much help.

PerryB

On my '05 I ended up replacing the yoke. On my Tahoe, the copper AS fixed it for months on end. On the '05 F150 nothing seemed to last more than a couple weeks.

chuddly

I drilled and tapped mine and installed a grease zerk. I did that ~ a year ago and it has been zero problem since and I have not had to go back under it to regrease it even. Well worth the $10 in materials and 15 min to do it.

BadlilF150

I cleaned out all the old grease on mine.. the longest part about doing this was just the prep work involved. I used a couple cans of brake cleaner. When I was done it was spotless. Per the instructions you only lube the inner splines. My guess is if you do it the other way it might push the grease away. I used a small brush I had to lay it in there. Used the Ford blue PFTE (new one is white i think) and my problem is resolved. Been gone for about 1k miles so far. Using antiseaze without removing the old grease probably isn't the best idea. I would use the Ford approved PFTE. They sell a kit that includes the clamp on the boot and the grease for 18$ at ford.

Bruski

When I took mine apart for the clunk it also very easy to slide and smooth, no play at all. I still cleaned splines with cleaner and regreased with the kit I bought from Ford dealership for 12 bucks, it was the white grease. Issue has not returned.

Pilgrim

OK. I admit I was very skeptical, since it had lots of grease in it and slid loosely upon disassembly. However, a bit of new grease and it's perfectly smooth again. I'm considering the zerk trick now, too.
Thanks.

chuddly

I will add that I run about 30k miles a year so I have that many miles on the "zerk trick" and have not had to regrease at all