Blown Rear End - 2004 Tacoma Limited

so I bought the 04 about 7 months ago, when I got it it had been serviced and they forgot to fill the rear end with oil, after about 1 month (short drives only) the gears went out, I took it in and my AUL Warranty wouldnt cover it because of "negligence" for not putting oil in, ok, got that, I paid 1/2 the bill, the dealership paid the other half (1300.00 total), now here I am 6 months later and the rear end went out again. The shop that did the work tells me that with the supercharger (on the Limited) and 35's I should expect it to go out every 6 months (I pretty much drive this too and from work and am not hard on it), he says UAL likely wont cover the repairs and that he wont warranty it (He said he bought the pumpkin new)

Is he blowing smoke or should I expect my rear end to go out every 6 months? to the tune of $1200?

Dave

 

by the way it does also have the locking rear Diff. The guy is telling me that with large tires and the supercharger the rear end flxes back and forth every time you accelerate and slow down. I think that he just didnt replace the axle bearings when he rebuilt it after there was no oil in it

Dave

 

Thanks for that, Like I Said I think they screwed up but If I gotta pay, I may as well solve it, I also looked at a Ballistic Fabrication Rear Axle truss. You have a source for the 8.4 and ARB that you recommend?

Dave

 

Nothing wrong with e-locked rear ends. Mine has held up to plenty of abuse.

 

Yea I just dont buy the repair shop telling me its going to go out every 6 months. I do VERY little off roaring, and I think they just didnt replace bearings or something when they rebuilt it the first time and dont want to warranty it.

Dave

 

The shops trying to cover themselves is all.

 

How are you figuring the elocker rear end is shitty? Setup properly it's plenty strong. The 8.4 has the same size ring and pinion as the elockers, the only thing it has going for it is the cap girdle.

To the op find another shop, they are a bunch of fucktards. Try to find some body that has exp with setting up Toyota rear ends.

 

Op where are you located at?

 

Uh, the e-locker rear end is a perfectly fine axle. It's just an inch too small for 2gen Tacos.

1st gens and 35s are running around all over the place without issues, e-locker or no. There's something fucked up here...either they're doing shitty rear end rebuilds or your axle housing is tweaked or...something. There's no way this thing should torch an R + P every 6 months.

The 8.4 also has an extra reinforcement rib on either side of the diff housing and 12mm studs with 14mm nuts, rather than 10mm studs with 12mm nuts on the e-locker.

That's only part of the problem though. Locked ass ends place way more stress on the ring gear if you bind things up. Also, guys with lockers tend to be harder on their trucks because...they have a locker, so they can actually wheel.

Also, Toyota's OEM gears are shit. They have a beveled edge which removes a LOT of material from the ring gear and makes it very thin out at the edge of the gear. This encourages deflection. Aftermarket ring gears are full cylinders, much more stout:

Here's my (first) OEM ring gear. Notice the beveled edge that starts right at the base of the ring gear teeth:




And here's an aftermarket diff with Nitro gears (Pic by 05TacoSport). Notice the ring gear isn't beveled at all:




These things matter.

See above. Lockers roll harder. Add to that the weaker overall construction of the axle/differential and yes, it has no business under the 2gen tacos. But that's an engineering fuckup by Toyota. They should've built a new diff/axle to go under the new truck. They decided to pinch pennies and not do that since 99.9% of Tacomas never see hard use and are glorified cars. It ended up profitable for them and annoying for people looking for a tough midsize truck.

The axle itself has been fantastic on everything it was mounted to from 1979 through the 1st gen Tacos. The fault is not with the axle itself.

it's fine in a 1st gen, even supercharged. They're a lot lighter and with less grunt in the motor. If the OP has severe axle wrap, that will also cause problems for his diff, but there are easy solutions to that problem...

 

Give these guys a call... WWW.eastcoastgearsupply.com

 

Is that carrier tweaked in the first pic?

 

Yes it is. That's how you know I did a good job.

Edit: Another view:

 

What the hell were you doing?

I also second going through eastcoastgearsupply.

 

Truck stuff

 

danggg