Hi,

I'm new here, so please forgive me if there's already a thread for this question; but I did a search and found nothing, so am asking here:

I have just done my first oil change and lube of my '99 Dakota SLT 4x4 with 5.2 engine and manual tranny. Have always had it done at the shops, but recently a mechanic said I should do it myself and use Castrol as opposed to Pennzoil (as all the shops use.) He said the Castrol is a better oil for an older truck - less detergent in it (I know that's debatable.) So this is the first time I did it myself.

The oil change was no problem (I am a terrible mechanic, so that was a major victory for me,) but I'm not sure about the lube. I found a lube nipple on the forward drive shaft and one each on the lower ball joints of the front wheels - but that's all I could find.

Could find no nipples on the rear drive shaft, any U-joints, or the upper ball joints of the front wheels (all of which seemed to be the sealed, self-lubricating types.)

Am I missing any? I just want to make sure I didn't overlook one or more crucial lube points.

Also, the lube point on the front drive shaft took a LOT of grease. I expected it to squirt out someplace when full, but it didn't. I finally stopped for fear I was adding too much. Is that possible? Might I have pumped in too much, and what might happen because of that? I hope it's not a problem.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Rich