Pulled my Alpha 1 Gen II this weekend...I have the sealed Permalube U-joints, where there's just a cap/plug instead of a grease fitting. Has anyone pulled these out and installed grease fittings? Can you do that?

I can say I've never done it, but if you can get the right fitting in there it should work.

Years ago when Merc changed over to the Permalube U-joints along with the aftermarket marine suppliers (Sierra & Aqua Power at that time) , the grease inside those U-joints was real expensive and not the same as over the counter wheel bearing grease.

Even though the OEM marine engine manufacturers and aftermarket marine suppliers buy them from whomever, they said not to try to grease them yourself by adding zerks because the 2 different greases might additive clash with each other causing failures.

Anyways I am sure things have changed because today quality is more about profit than actually quality itself. Might be cheap wheel bearing grease in them as well currently.

I dunno if permalube joints have the holes down the center to feed grease thru. in fact I doubt they do. one more machining process they don't hafta pay for. the u-joint with grease fittings; 1972 dodge mid-size. 318 automatic.

They do have the drilled and threaded hole .When you are finished installing u-joint you screw a threaded plug into hole .The plug is designed to break off as it bottoms out. If a jerk can be sourced that will screw in ,it would be greaseable. If yours are installed and plugged it would probably a lot of trouble to remove same..

Yeah, each u-joint has a plug in the hole where the zerk fitting goes, but they don't stick out enough to grab. I'm just gonna leave them sealed I guess. Thanks guys.