'83 Terc $1000 in Portland OR

[splatterdog]

I'm afraid the oil trick will only work if you do it before it starts to bind. By then those rollers inside have turned into rusty metal bushings. My joint was my biggest oil leak on the car for a while!

I got lucky. Even buying the lower joint then it's column a week later was only $35 total. Only had to drive 30 minutes out of the city too. I didn't even want to laugh by calling toyota.

The "new" lower joint did receive severe lubrication. The first thing I tried was drilling some very small holes in the caps to hit with a needle point grease gun. They are unbelievably hard. I ended up cooking it on a campstove in a grease mixture with enough gear oil to make it liquefy. I found out mobil one grease will not melt. It will stay in a ball till it starts smoking. The gear oil added some really good flavor too(yuck).

One other option I considered but never even checked in to was clutch/driveline shops. They have to deal with "staked in" u joints on asian RWD driveshafts and may be able to rebuild these. Just don't tell them it's for steering, that might spook em.

[Seattle_Tercel_Lover]

I just noticed today that the steering isn't binding anymore. Maybe it was just stiff from sitting for a while. It seems pretty smooth now. But I will keep an eye on that u joint. Anyone have a schematic?