Carrier Bearing 180 Degree Flip Question

I was having some vibe issues and read about flipping the carrier bearing 180 degrees. I went ahead and flipped it and it feels like it made a difference. I havent had a chance to give it a good road test yet. I only drove it around my neighborhood. Anyway, will this cause any issues with the CB itself? Thanks!!

 

Perhaps this is a stupid question, but how did you flip the carrier bearing?

 

Unbold, rotate 180 and rebolt lol

 

Sorry to bring up an old thread..... but I'm experiencing some driveline vibes and I wanted to flip the carrier bearing like the OP has done.
Any responses to whether its a ok to do? good/bad/doesn't matter the direction?

 

The mounting tabs are not center oriented on the bearing. Toyota installed mine upside down after they did my frame swap and this is the result..
https://youtu.be/s_e5_PYiWEE

 

so, thats a no to carrier bearing flip.... any suggestions to check if the carrier bearing is bad?

 

Had vibes after lifting mine an 1.5" so I flipped it to see if it would help and the vibes went away. It's 2 bolts and completely reversible. Don't see the harm in tying it.

 

Ha! Well it's either thump thump , or hum hum hum

 

I'll be home in a few and try out flipping it. If the bolts aren't centered then the pivot pt will either move up or down. If your truck was lifted 1.5" and the vibe went away maybe it just moved the rotation pt down a bit. Hmmmm

 

You can try flipping it and see what happens to the vibes. Could get better, could get worse, could just change the speed of the vibes. Flipping the CB actually raises the front half of the driveshaft, which is typically the wrong direction after a lift.

With a mild lift a CB drop like the OME kit may be just the ticket. But the best thing to do is start by measuring the driveline angles and see where you need to go from there. You can end up tilting at windmills if you don't know your driveline angles and just throw spacers at it, flip the bearing, etc. There are a couple threads on this. Like this one.

 

Well... looks like flipping the CB did Jack squat. I went ahead and ordered a new passenger side wheel bearing. If that doesn't fix the vibe then I'm going to tear that drive shaft down and get some fresh parts.

Thanks for your help guys. Took me a whole 10 minutes to get the CB off and back on. Wish I had a way to determine the angles.

 

Do you have a smart phone? There are free inclinometer apps. Or harbor freight is super cheap.

 

Genius! I'll see what I can download.

So from reading above @TaterHarry

~3 degrees is optimal?

 

There are two angles that need to be set as equal as possible: at the differential / rear shaft, and at the transfer case / front shaft. Every truck is a little different so there is no magic number. See page 13-14 here:

http://www2.dana.com/pdf/J3311-1-HVTSS.PDF

Shim the axle as necessary to keep the angles under 5 degrees and adjust at the carrier bearing to get them equal. When I installed my Dakars I found that dropping the CB 3/4" was the sweet spot - no axle shims required. But like I said every truck is different.

 

Thanks @TaterHarry

I have a new wheel bearing on rout. Once that's done I'll check out my drive shaft.

 

i have a question for the pros

I flipped the CB, less vibes but still has a bit of vibe from 0-20mph .... aside from this it runs smooth.
Can flipping the CB cause u joint damage?
If I reverse the CB back to original set up and just place a cb drop kit, it vibrates 0-20mph and 20-0 mph, but is it safer for the u joints?

what is best solution for a complete vibe free drive line? does it need a shim under rear leaf springs?

 

I'm not a pro but I diagnosed/solved my vibes and I stayed at a Holiday Inn once. Go read the pdf I referenced in my earlier post. Two-piece driveshafts are pages 13-14.

YOU MUST MEASURE THE DRIVELINE ANGLES or you will be stuck in a cycle of trial and error. Extreme and/or compound angles are bad for the U-joints and will cause premature failure. How premature?

You may or may not need to shim the axle. Once shimmed you may or may not need to adjust the carrier bearing to fine tune. If you can get the angles referenced in the diagram to be equal, you will be golden.

Dana recommends 1-1.5 degrees at the jackshaft. You can go a little higher without vibes or worrying about wear (but keep em greased!) You want to avoid compound angles and your angles should be in the 1.5 > 5 degree range for optimal U-joint life.

 

So my new wheel bearing fixed my big vibe issue.... now I have a smaller vibe at ~40mph
I'm thinking this is definitely the driveshaft. Tried flipping the carrier bearing to see how it lines up the shaft, definitely moved it up quite a bit.

It started raining on me so I didn't have a chance to bolt it up the "normal" way but I definitely feel the same clunks I did before.

I'm saving up for a new suspension to hopefully reduce the axle wrap and then put some new U joints on the driveshaft!


Saw the angle app used by another guy last week. looked pretty fancy and straight forward.