My rear end problems. (tacoma)

[cwlahr]

I recently bought an 03 Tacoma 4x4. Long story short, my neighbor had it from new, and due the all too common undercarriage rust issues, the rear diff housing rusted through and he ran it out of oil. Found a guy in Jersey selling a complete rear axle housing assembly with 3rd member, e locker actuator etc. and bought it for $350. He wasn't sure if the diff was good or not but, for the price I got a rust free complete rear... Installed this and test drove-- Very noisy especially at higher speeds and decelerating. So apparently the diff has issues. Visually I see no bad wear on any of the gears, and no chips or chunks missing, so thinking carrier bearings???. I got a very rough estimate from a shop of $600 to rebuild. This seems expensive to me but i really don't know. I've never rebuild a diff before so wondering if anybody can give me advice on this.. Should I have it rebuild or try to do it myself? Is it very involved? Any special tools required? Where can i get a parts kit..Dealer or aftermarket?

Thanks.

 

[Dirty Koala]

Setting up diffs is a bit of an art form, and yes there are specialty tools required to do it right. Setting the carrier preload and appropriate backlash requires a good magnetic dial guage, and a couple different torque wrenches. Those tools will cost equal or more than $600 most likely. A typical price to setup a diff is $1000, so looks like you are getting a good price, just be conscious of who is building your diffs...there a plenty of shops that don't do a good job. Unless you want to go through the learning experience, and likely pay more to do it yourself, I would have a shop with a solid reputation for diff work setup your gears.

If you want the best guy for toyota 3rds, ship your 3rd's out to Zuk, nobody better for these diffs. www.gearinstalls.com

 

[shmukster]

I agree with the price, $600 for a quality guaranteed overhaul with new pinion and carrier bearings is not bad at all. Not everyone out there will take on a job like this, and not everyone who does is good at it. Your truck is not the first truck I've heard of that the rear housing rusts through, used housings are getting hard to find. Good luck!

 

[jamarquardt22]

Do a paint check of the gear pattern. Take good high resolution pics of them and e mail them to zuk. Also take good pics of any markings you can find. He will probably be able to say if they are good quality gears or not.

 

[cwlahr]

Thank You for all the advice!