john small
New member
How remove rust from front universal joints on front of JK
2009 wrangler
- Thread starter john small
- Start date
Welcome to Jeepz.com John.
Are you referring to the axle u-joints, driveshaft u-joints, or the entire drive shaft? I know on my TJ both driveshafts rusted pretty quickly, and it bothered me, so I sanded and painted them.
As to the ujoints, you'd likely be better off just replacing them - they are cheap. You could try painting them, but if they are rusty and greasy, the paint may not stick too well.
Are you referring to the axle u-joints, driveshaft u-joints, or the entire drive shaft? I know on my TJ both driveshafts rusted pretty quickly, and it bothered me, so I sanded and painted them.
As to the ujoints, you'd likely be better off just replacing them - they are cheap. You could try painting them, but if they are rusty and greasy, the paint may not stick too well.
john small
New member
Thank you and it was retaining u joint
While I can see cleaning up the rust on the shafts or other 'permanent' parts and then priming/painting them, no way would I consider painting the U-joint itself. As Terry said paint won't adhere to grease and you shouldn't paint the rubber boots or the zerk fitting. By the time you prepped it for paint it would be quicker/easier to just replace it.
JPNinPA
Well-known member
You mean wipe grease on the part you don't want the paint to stick to.
That works. I've seen guys paint every part in detail.
Back in the 60's an old paint and body man told me that the best way to rust proof car doors was to take the interior panel off and spray/pour burnt motor oil into the door. He did say that if any painting needed to be done - do it first. The biggest issue with using oil as a rust preventive is it will wear/wash off sooner or later ..... but it is simple to reapply.
superj
Well-known member
a guy here in the area i live, which is a peninsula in south texas and we both live about 1/3 mile from the ocean, put some oil watered down with gasoline into one of those pump bug sprayers, and he goes and sprays all the undersides of his vehicles once a year. he doesn;t have the normal rusty underside most people here have on his vehicles.
i had an easier way of doing it on an old f150 i had in high school though. it had a leak at the oil pan gasket and would drip about a quart out once a month. i just never fixed the leak and the truck would undercoat itself while driving. that was my old surfing truck and the bed rusted out from the top but the underside of hte truck never got a bit of rust on it, ha ha ha. i always think about that when i buy used vehicles and if they have a little drip or light oil leak, i never fix it so i don;t have to worry about the suspension rusting out.
i had an easier way of doing it on an old f150 i had in high school though. it had a leak at the oil pan gasket and would drip about a quart out once a month. i just never fixed the leak and the truck would undercoat itself while driving. that was my old surfing truck and the bed rusted out from the top but the underside of hte truck never got a bit of rust on it, ha ha ha. i always think about that when i buy used vehicles and if they have a little drip or light oil leak, i never fix it so i don;t have to worry about the suspension rusting out.
dwillys
New member
Rust won't hurt U joints if that's what your worried about. As far as some here suggesting to just replace them, you can see he is a newbie here, and you can tell about his original question that he can't replace them himself. Therefore, if a shop replaces them, (they will rust again),do you think it's still cheap? It was a bad suggestion as far as I'm concerned. The next thing is, if they had grease all over them, they wouldn't be rusty. So, to the OP, why do you want them rust free ? it won't hurt anything, you'll replace them way before the rust will compromise the part. Have you seen your driveshafts ? there probably rusty also. There are parts that are acceptable to be rusty and not hurt them, especially cast iron. To superj above me, thanks alot for letting oil drip all over all the roads you drive, very responsible of you. I can only hope it all ends up in your drinking water. I would hope some here are smart enough not to let that happen. It it leaks oil, what happens when you go off road ? it leaks there also. It would be great if even half of you went to blueribboncoalition.com and see the battles they fight to keep trails open. Mainly because of people who go offroad and let oil drip, throw trash outside, go off the trail and run over bushes, stuff like that. Superj needs to go there and give until it hurts. Then go fix your oil leak !
Bounty__Hunter
Super Moderator
Even though a large percentage of our roadways are made with oil, it isn't soluble and doesn't mix with our groundwater. I think that's what dwillys was getting at. You don't have to subscribe to the religion and drink the koolaid to want cleaner groundwater.
