Broken grease nipple

[meerkatmag]

Last year I broke off one of the grease nipples from my propshaft and have since lost it. Is it possible to buy a replacement nipple and how do they get installed?
Cheers
1988 mk3 190 lwb

[Bruce e]

Yes reedley available, the old one should come out easily with a stud extractor take it with you to get the right thread

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[meerkatmag]

I tried a stud remover on the broken nipple and it just pushes it inside and it disappeared into the uj! It doesn't look like a thread? It looks more like a push fit. Are you sure these nipples are threaded?

[dumper]

I’ve never seen a push fit grease nipple it would probably pop out if when used

[meerkatmag]

I must have completely knacked the threads then as it just looks like a smooth shaft. I guess I'll have to re tap them? I hope that bit of metal doesn't destroy the inside of the uj when it's spinning.

[marcrbarker]

I must have completely knacked the threads then as it just looks like a smooth shaft. I guess I'll have to re tap them? I hope that bit of metal doesn't destroy the inside of the uj when it's spinning.

The smooth shaft, are you sure that's not the inside of a broken off grease nipple? What you might had pushed in may had been the spring. I would had thought there would had been some trace of the thread there unless you'd drilled it. If I remember rightly it's 1/4" UNF or metric

330px-ScrewExtractors-square.jpg

[meerkatmag]

Ive made such a mess of this! I tried to tap the hole, and the material is so tough the tap broke. So then I looked closely and I think you're right that the nipple is broken off inside and that's why I can't see the threads. So I've tried drilling the tap out so I can extract it but the metal is now even harder and my cobalt bits dont make a dent in it.

Is it so bad to leave it blocked? Will the uj dry up? I could try greasing it direct to the joint?

Any advice appreciated!

[Bruce e]

You have 2 choices, don't worry about it and keep an eye on it and replace it in the future. None of my Transits and BMWS have grease niples. The only one's I have seen greasable are on agricultural PTO shafts and Trucks . Or replace it now.

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[marcrbarker]

and the material is so tough the tap broke.

Oh shite
I guess it plug the hole up and then watch and wait. May be lucky. If you don't plug hole then it will definately dry out and fail. If get the traces of oil off can use acid silicone, or even better swissmade Sika flex poluerathane, that stuff's so good you can use patch exhaust holes!

[Bruce e]

You probably should plug the hole to keep the sh*t out but if you look at how the universal works centrifugal force keeps the grease in the needle roller bearings

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[dumper]

If you have no play in uj you should be ok if it’s the circlip fitment you can charge it yourself when the time comes and if it’s the steak type there are companies that can replace them .The only real difference between a grease type and non grease type is the central spider has not been machined to take a nipple when the sealed for life came out it was the same casting just not machined.

[marcrbarker]

Posted this Land Rover one so can see how a typical 'circlip type' is made.
I'm no expert but I guess to make it the centre spider was drop-forged, then the thread machined, then the entire spider case-hardened, then ground down to size. If so, I would expect impossible to drill and cut anyway.
When fail I find easy to do, remove all circlips and with a 1/2" drive socket size just fits lightly tap it in with hammer to pop out the 4 end shells one at a time. Then the '+' spider wiggles out.
When I had Jag half-shafts go I used to buy a complete used halfshaft instead of change a UJ, because the "Made-to-Jaguar-Specification" replacement UJ's were made of butter.

uj-landrover.jpg

There's loads of youtuube videos of doing ths. Use a G-clamp instead of tap with hammer + sticky grease there'll be less chance teh needles drop out of place when re-assemble.

[metalworker0]

I tried a stud remover on the broken nipple and it just pushes it inside and it disappeared into the uj! It doesn't look like a thread? It looks more like a push fit. Are you sure these nipples are threaded?

stud extractors have left hand threads ..you turn it anti- clockwise to extract.

some grease nipples don't have threads they are an interference fit - like so

https://www.gsparkplug.com/media/catalo ... 16DFMS.jpg

think youll have to take the UJ apart to sort the problem out

as for taps ..i don't know mk3 perhaps they were still using NF threads (Hardy Spicer is a USA manufacturer)

all the best.mark