Originally Posted by
Ascend Charlie
Your preflight inspection should include running your fingers around the rubber boot, checking for splits or grease.
Yeah, but the absence of any grease at all in the coupling, even if the seal was stuffed, would not yield any clue to the pilot that there was no grease in the coupling. Meaning the coupling was assembled without any grease. Hard to believe I know, but it wouldn't be the first time (I've seen a B212 ET drive shaft fitted without any grease in the coupling, it lasted for only the post-maintenance ground run before it turned kamikaze on itself).