How To: Replacing Carrier Bearing

421,000 miles and counting... Grease all her joints etc every 10-15K since new and Mobile 1 only.... Center bearing is way wobbly and can see bearing race through rubber... with a 12 hr one way ride in 3 weeks and back... looking at where to get the bearing for a good one.. OEM is option as I like doing it right the first time... and this one has lasted this long. wobbles at 55 just a bit.. thought it was a rim out of round which I do have but yea right in center... Any up do date comments on best place to get part.. OEM from Yota dealer or other...

Tina

 

Send a PM to Camelback Toyota (Vendor) for a quote. They will likely be much less than local dealership.

 

410,000, that's awesome

 

anyone know the part number of the flange nut?

 

90179-18009

 

is that part # 1st gen specific or for 2nd gen..... I need the part # for 2nd gen. Thanks

 

Im guessing 1st gen

 

1st gen. This is a 1st gen specific thread, there are a lot of different options for carrier bearings for 2ng gens, guys I've read using McMaster Carr bearings, search wookie strength carrier bearing, you'll get some interesting ideas

 

Thats awesome Tina.. & underscores what I've preached here for years about being anal about lubing everything with a zirk that needs grease.

I don't know but I've put CB's spec'd for 1st gens on 2nd gens & vice-versa so regardless of part #, I'd say it's the same part (physically)

 

Just did this last night, 11/23/2015, and wanted to share my adventure. was surprisingly easy, took about an hour. my trucks also a 4x4, so after I removed the rear drive shaft completely, I put it in 4hi and drove away as though it was a front wheel drive :-D. the flange on the tranny/x-fer case was held in by a locknut. so it wouldn't fall out or leak any gear oil. I used just a 14mm wrench and 14mm universal socket on a 3/8 drive cordless impact gun. at least until I got to removing the support, i went to my work for that.

just like it says in the how-to, marked all yokes to their flanges with a blue metal marker, removed the yoke from the flange at the rear diff first, unbolted the bad carrier bearing from the crossmember, then removed the front yoke from the tranny/x-fer case flange. had to do some prying with a drywall hammer to remove the yokes from their flanges, wasn't hard though.

then using my tail gate as a work bench, I separated the 2 halves of the driveshaft and drove to my work, which coincidentally has a machine shop :-D. when I got there, I placed my forward half in a bench vice with the support end sticking out to work on. I was about to use a 3/4 impact gun to remove the nut without prying out the staked/locking piece, but my toyota buddy yelled at me saying I need to open it up first...... Which was weird cause the head machinist never does that, he just uses the impact gun and zips those nuts right off with the staked portion and threads still in tact. anywho, the staked piece was being a pain for 5 minutes so my buddy said fuck it and just remove it like I was going to. took less than a second with the nut and threads in perfect condition!

here's the next weird thing though. when we went to remove the bad carrier bearing, it just slid off! it wasn't loose fitting or the wrong one or anything. it just came off with a little force. and the new one went on just as easily! it was a perfect fit! we had to dig our heel into the ground to give us some pushing leverage, but it still went on all the way. weird?

so i then drove my truck back to my buddys house and reversed the process, making sure the marks I left matched up. overall took about an hour, driving included.

 

Nice job. What were the symptoms of your bad CB, and what brand did you replace it with?

 

symptoms were loud squealing as though the belts were loose. but only between 30 and 55 mph. happened while accelerating, cruising, or decelerating between those speeds. knew it wasn't the belts because I would push the clutch and the noise would continue. if it were the belts, the sound would be consistent with the engine RPMs, not the velocity.

and it started making a lot of noise the day after I changed my tranny mount. weird thing here. the rubber on the mounts were almost 1 inch lower than stock. so with the old tranny mount on, I pushed on the drive shaft to check CB play, it was tight. I guess the tranny sitting lower than stock tugged the drive shaft down, making the CB seem good and tight. after changing the tranny mount, the play in the CB was apparent.

diagnosed the issue for a week. and in the mean time i did stuff like remove my rock guard, spare tire, checked my body mounts, my leaf springs, my tail gate, my exhaust heat shields, everything was good. I even sprayed permatex's rubberized undercoating on everything I just mentioned except for my tail gate. noise continued. on a plus note, my truck is now quieter than it ever was .

I can't remember the manufacturer of my bearing. all I remember is it supplied with our main bearing line at my work. carquest/advance auto parts. I didn't want to do a dorman or anchor center support, since they don't specialize in bearings like koyo, timken, skf, or NTK.

side note!! I also lubed my u-joints and rear driveshaft slip yoke while I was trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. doing this made the squealing go down about 90%, affirming my suspicions that the CB was bad. I'm also going to assume the noise died down because my u-joints were a bit stiff/dry, and lubing them allowed them to move freely

 

Thanks for posting that info. I first replaced mine with an SKF unit and its quealed from the start. Then tried the Dorman and it was garbage. I have an Anchor unit on there now, and all is well after 5K miles.

 

thanks alot for this ,just replaced it today and it was as easy as one two three .

 

Just replace my center bearing on my 04 dbl cab 2 wheel drive, with 140k, this afternoon. The truck is used, but new to me, and while going though my bumper to bumper to check, I found the center bearing had a 1/2" of play. I have been experiencing what I believe to be (after reading some more great write ups on this forum) "axle wrap". When accelerating from a stop, I more often than not, get a clunk from the back. I bought and installed a set of leaf spring clamps a couple of months ago and purchased the OEM center bearing which I put on today. The job took about an hour with the only issue was removing the flange from the splines on the driveshaft. Had to use a puller and tap the flange with a hammer to get it to budge. The splines were dry and gunked up. Once I got the flange off, the center bearing just lifted off. I did use a 1/2 drive battery powered impact with an impact swivel to get the 14mm's loose and to remove the 24mm for the flange (did not need a vise). Re-greased everything and re-installed the drive shaft. No more play in the center bearing! No issues on the test drive, got up to 75 with no vibrations or noise.
Thank you for the amazing write up! Made the job easy for me!

 

God, I love TacomaWorld. I'm about to perform this replacement myself. I always look for a how-to thread on TW so i will know what I can expect. Nice write up.

Oh, and I'm replacing mine with a Timkin unit I got from Rockauto for ~$68. I don't really have the cash to burn for the OEM mark-up, but I always try to stay with either the OEM manufacturer (Koyo, Aisin, Denso, etc...) or a good well known brand like Timkin or Moog.

 

Question about u-joints are they pressed in on a 2000 Tacoma? I didnt see any snap rings on the one side but I havent looked at the opposite side...

 

If you're talking about the ujoints on at the transmission/t-case or the rear diff, the c-clips are on the inside of the yoke like the axle ujoints on Dana solid axle knuckles. The double ujoint by the support bearing...I don't think those are replaceable, at least that's what I've always heard, but the ends connecting the unit to the driveshaft and propeller shaft probably have the c-clips on the inside as well.

Hope that helps.

 

The cardan joints are able to be replaced as far as my search goes. The Joints I was talking about are the one connected to the axle/pinion and the part off the rear transmission. I'll look later but the caps from the outside didnt have any snap rings so maybe they are internal like you said.

 

Alright. My manual says not, but I was always suspicious of that anyway. I mean, why shouldn't they be replaceable? It hasn't been an issue for me yet, so I haven't really looked into the alternatives.

But yeah, for the others, they are definitely on the inside of the yoke unfortunately. The good news is, IIRC, you can get a yoke for the external style clips if you wanna cough up the cash.