Can you grease a driveshaft in Explorer ?

[Explorer_PL]

My 06 4WD explorer makes a clunky noise when I shift into R and start moving. It sounds like a yoke in driveshaft needs lubrication maybe or I have some play in rear end ?

Any ideas ?

 

[pzy3339]

The front driveshaft has a U joint at the differential and a CV joint at the transfer case. The rear driveshaft has a U joint at each end and some boot thing in the middle, not sure what it does or why its there.

None of these are easily serviced. The CV joint can be greased if you take it off. The U joints could be repacked but if you get that far might as well just replace them. They do not have grease ports. You would have to push it in with the caps off.

 

[Flag Gibby]

You would have to just replace the u joints on the driveshaft, they are sealed units and considering the mileage you have on the vehicle I would consider them to be well worn. It is also possible that you have a little slop in the rear differential. The easiest way to check the amount of play in the rear differential is to move the driveshaft by hand with the vehicle in park and see how much it moves (the yoke on the differential input and not the u joints). Everything should be pretty snug and not move much at all.