Opinions on my Toyota Diff! (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

DiscoveryXD

DiscoveryXD

Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Threads
21
Messages
285
Location
Reno
So were still having problems witht the diff....

I pulled it out and checked it again before I took it back down to Eric (dr. smash) to pull it apart. When I was in my driveway I stuck my hand inside the splines on the e locker side of the diff (the collar that the axle shaft slides into) and spun the collar around while pushing in on it. That caused the spider gears in that side to make a clicking/clunking noise. When I pulled out on that collar as I rotated it, the noise went away. So that leads me to believe that there's play in those gears on the locker side of the carrier. I did the same thing on the oppiste side of the diff (passenger side) and the gears on that side made NO noise at all.

So, Eric was playing around with it today and he see's the same thing I do. He placed a dial indicator on it and that gear on the locker side walks up .005" of an inch.

He said that toyota sells the spider gears as a "gear kit" for over $400. Do you guys know of a place that may have the kit for cheaper?

The noise Im experiencing is only AFTER the truck has been driving around for a bit and things have had a chance to warm up in the axle housing. It appears ONLY at nuetral throttle when everything is in float at above 40mph. I see how those gears being loose could make this noise.

Eric said that he was worried about the possibility of the axle housing being bent/warped and thats causing the axle shaft to go into the diff crooked. Which could also cause the collar for the locker to rattle around and make noise on the shift fork.

I'm thinking the axle housing is fine cause the splines on the axle shafts look good, and I havent done anything to bend the rover housing. Rover axle housing are one solid piece and are pretty beefy too.


So what do you guys think? Replace the spider gears and hope that fixes it? No way to tell if the axle housing is bent.... But I never jump the truck or wheel it hard anyways.

I'll post pics of the axle shafts to show the wear on the splines....

Ive never been so frustrated with something in my life.:frown:
 
damn. I honestly have no clue, but that has to be maddingly frustrating. I hope that you can get it fixed. I know I hate it when my truck is down for repairs.

jon.
 
Maybe Inchworm for parts?

I wish I could be of more use, but something is not right and I don't know what it might be.

The housing that you are using, I know you got it used, are you sure its not bent or something? Could it have been in a wreck or jumped? I don't know why those gears would go bad.

Not saying Toy e-lockers are perfect, but I have never heard of the problem you are having. Maybe post on TTORA.com. Those guys know those e-lockers in and out.

Jack
 
I'll call inchworm in the morning...

I don't see how the housing could be bent when Ive driven on it for over a year and a half with no problems. THe welding I did over at your place wasn't enough to warp that thick housing. I talked to my buddy in utah who sent me the housing and he never had any problems with it, nor did he jump or abuse it. I'm hoping the spider gears are the problem.
 
Last edited:
Or you could send yours to Scott in Albuquerque (Albuquerque Clutch and Driveline). That's who set my rear up properly (finally) last year. It sure would be nice to have a good diff guy closer though :rolleyes:
 
Who did the work on your diff the first time, Dan?


I ordered the diff from inchworm....
 
River City Diffs in Sacramento: Long story but he effed me good.

I'm not sure what I'd do if I need a Toyota diff set up again. OTOH a buddy had his 4.88's and ARB lockers installed by Folbeck on his '06 4R and they did a great job. He told me they did it in-house and didn't farm the diff setup out. Don't know about price but can't be more $$$ than running to Sacto and back about 8-times and still getting screwed ;)
 
Last edited:
Ive had good luck with Dean in Carson for a diff and drive shaft guy.
not sure though what he could do for you, but you could call him and ask....That is all that he does and his prices kick the s*** out of anyone here in Reno.
Donno much about diffs. That is how I know him.:p
 
Keith and I have both had work done by Dean down in Carson City, so far so good. His prices are very reasonable compared to Reno Driveline services.

Bayshore Truck equipment has a good reputation for diff work.

You might also check out Trent Fabrication, I'm not sure how they compare on price. They do a lot of locker installs.
 
Can you shim it? Some diffs have shims in the side gears, if you could find one with the right size hole, you could have the gear turned down and take the slop out. Assuming it would be going the right direction to make it quiet.

A lot depends on you. Is it annoying you? Could you clearance the shift fork? Could the fork be bent? Is it even rubbing on the shift fork, or is it something else that is making the noise?

Can you swap the gears from one side of the diff to the other?

.005 clearance is nothing more than standard wear. You could buy $400 worth of spider gears and still have .0035 clearance and still be screwed if that's the cause.

I'm really leaning toward doing more investigation before you lay out $$$$.
 
We talked about shimming it, but I'm not an expert on diffs and I'm not sure if that would be the right thing to do. I don't like band-aid fixes, and that sounds like one to me. Its been almost two months now that my truck has been parked, and 3 times I've pulled that diff back out. I don't want to keep throwing money at a diff that we can't figure out. Eric said he didn't think we should dump more money into this thing either...

I did check the shift fork, and it was all the way over. It looked totally fine when I had it out, so its not bent. Plus I drove on it for almost a year and a half before these problems came around.

The noise is annoying, but not loud enough to were it couldn't just be ignored. I go out in the desert a lot during the summer months and I don't want my diff to be questionable at best.
 
So is it a locker problem, or the diff?
I dont know a whole lot about em either, so Im kinda ignorant as to the location.
Ill have a spare diff you could try out and see here shortly, but they have 3.73 gears in em. Donno if you re geared or not?
OR, I could just pull the spider gears and let you use those...

Lemme know. Ill have 4 frickin diffs layin around my shop here in the next few weeks.

Keith
 
Thanks keith! I ordered the new diff from inchworm, and I'm just going to sell the old one... Hopefully things will work out!
 
DiscoveryXD said:
Thanks keith! I ordered the new diff from inchworm, and I'm just going to sell the old one... Hopefully things will work out!
Click to expand...


AAAAAH!
Good luck man! Hope that is the issue for you!
 
You could always buy my stock 99 Disco and start over...;)
 
What are your plans for it?

Its sad that I've had so much bad luck with my rear diffs when it comes to aftermarket parts. Never had issues with the stock stuff!
 
What are you planning on doing to it?

All the diff problems I've had these past two years have been from aftermarket parts. Kinda sad.....
 
DiscoveryXD said:
What are you planning on doing to it?

All the diff problems I've had these past two years have been from aftermarket parts. Kinda sad.....
Click to expand...

I haven't touched it other than drive it. I want to sell it and fund another 45 series project now that I have the 100 series.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom