Re-Torque Propeller Shaft Bolts - 4 WD

I have a 2010 Access cab, 4 cyl, 4 WD. The maintenance schedule calls for periodically checking the tightness/torque of the propellar shaft bolts. It looks to me that there are 8 bolts associated with the front propellar shaft assembly, and another 8 bolts associated with the rear propellar shaft assembly, for a total of 16 bolts to be checked. Can any of you more experienced members confirm my 16 bolt count? Thank you.

 

Your count is right, 4-nuts/bolts holding shafts at each flange, now check your Ubolts & let me know how loose they are (providing you've never had them off before)

 

I've heard 54 ft lbs and 65 ft lbs for these bolts... which is right?

 

Tighten them down with your hand and a strong ratchet. 65ftlbs sounds excessive

 

It's 65 ft lbs according to the factory service manual.

 

Why? Wheel studs are 12 mm and need 83 ft-lb. The driveshaft bolts are slightly smaller, so the torque is slightly lower.

The driveshaft's spinning motion puts a slight moment on the bolts, potentially causing them to loosen over time. Proper torque with torque wrench makes it less likely to happen.

 

I've never had it happen. Little bit of blue thread locker and a good snug tightening

Ps. Wait until you torque something to a manufacturer spec and it breaks. Some of the specs ARE too much. Possibly misprints.

 

Well for 2nd gens , in most manuals it says 37 ft pounds for Ubolts, this is a typo, 1st gens are 90ft.lbs. IIRC,so I'd say around 50-60 ft.lbs. is about right for the driveshafts.

But to the OP, I'm serious about checking your Ubolts

 

and while youre under there, might as well grease the fuck out of your driveshaft zerks as well as slip joint

 

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x10 absolutely

 

that thud or "late downshift" is awfully irritating for being such an easy fix.

 

Again this is true, its bad enough that tacomas suffer from axle wrap from the soft cheesy springs, I've seen dry drivelines add to or radically exaggerate existing axle wrap & have seen it go away all together by just lubing shit up right & regular...

 

feels like mine has completely gone away. although i was dealing with it since i bought the truck in january, so it had been a while..

 

Has anyone installed a zerk for their slip joint? I greased mine with teflon grease about 10,000 miles ago when I replaced my u-joints and it was a pain, I'd rather not have to remove the driveshaft every single time.

 

No zirk on the sliding yoke is beyond stupid as far as I'm concerned, they want to "perma seal" everything that should be greased..

 

What and where is the "slip joint"? I've copied a few pages worth of info on the propeller shaft assembly and nowhere does it mention it. Anyone know if there's a write-up here for this? Thanks.

 

Look for the accordian rubber boot on the drive shaft. There is a splined section under that. It allows the DS to get longer and shorter as the suspension moves up and down. In the old days they all had zerks to keep the spline greased

 

That only happens if the bolt has severely rusted, and only if you are loosening the bolt for service then re-tightening. For driveshaft bolts, the maintenance action is simply taking a torque wrench set at 65 ft-lb and tightening them, so even rusted bolts won't break.

Misprints are rare and can happen in either direction, too high or too low. Best way is to compare torque values for similarly sized bolts elsewhere on the truck and in similar other models. Driveshaft bolts for the 2007 4Runner, FJ and 1st gen Tundra all say 65 ft-lb. By the way, mfr's torque specs are only good for OEM hardware. If you install an aftermarket part with new bolts that are a different material grade, size or thread pitch than OEM, the required torque will be different.

 

i would like to do this, although because of the way the joint is, i think you would have to drill and tap two zerks across from eachother to adequately get it greased. there are some guys that have done this on the ford forums that i was reading about, the zerks are inexpensive, im just not confident enough in my drilling/tapping skills to try it on a $500 dollar part that would render the truck unusable if i fucked it up. waiting for someone here to do this to their truck though.

 

Yeah, same here. I have a whole bag of 'em in my garage I got for like $5, but I haven't had the courage to drill into the driveshaft yet. The Ford driveshafts had problems with the teflon coating wearing off so that's probably why there's so much information on this for them.

I have an issue with the amount of annular space around the slip yoke shaft. Whenever there's no tension in the driveline there's a rasping sound that I'm 99% sure is caused by the slight up/down/left/right movement of the slip yoke at high speed. After taking it apart, cleaning it, and packing with teflon grease the sound went away for a 200 miles or so, but it came back. I think that keeping the space filled with grease is the key (or buying another driveshaft for $500 that might do the same thing). Other threads have been started on this subject, it seems to only afflict those with the 2005+ regular cab one-piece units.