Western Massachusetts Tacomas

Lol you would be going East on 84. Then would come back west on 90 if you went to Rick's first lol

 

Rick's meet will be happening soon.

No shit huh?

 

Boy you guys really dirtied up this thread last night.
Whewwww....

@Unchained 5150 @Blackout14 @tacobell007
Safe travels Drew.

 

Thank you good sir! I will probably be leaving around 10 or 11 tomorrow night and drive the 14 hours

 

@tacobell007 Drew, I saw that you replaced the needle bearing before your trip. Can it cause more harm to other areas in there if it goes on for a long period of time? I've got the feeling that mine has developed symptoms of that problem but need to hold off fixing it for a while, is that a bad idea?

 

My understanding from what I have read on here is that prolonged needle bearing wear can gouge the cv axle. (which it can) and I know if the bearing gets real bad it will wreck the axle seal and start leaking gear oil. Let it go on for way too long and it may start wearing into the diff but that would take a long while

 

@tacobell007 @js312 @ERMB @Unchained 5150
You guys have probably all talked about this before.
What are the symptoms of a bad needle bearing?
What causes it to go?
Thanks.

 

If you watch the video that is NOT the install vid on ECGS website it explains why it goes bad. Symptoms for me was a vibrating steering wheel. I also had my truck on the lift doing my rotors and had quite a bit of slop in moving the axle up and down on the drivers side next to the diff

 

Thanks Drew! I just saw recently a guy posted about getting his covered under the power-train warranty, I won't hold my breath on that one though. I'll bring it up when I bring it in though.

Mine has a weird cyclical grinding, moaning sound to it. I noticed it happening back in Oct or so and it's been slowly getting more noticeable. Only notice it between 20-40mph though.

 

Usually a lift is the biggest reason why the needle bearing goes. That or just extreme excessive mileage. I ran a lift on mine for 75ish K miles and only then got slop in the CV axle, some growling usually when i turn right and it unloads the CV, and steering wheel play under breaking. Did the ECGS bushing and it all went away. Had a slight hot mark on the CV but that was it.

Also not Western Mass but just over the boarder in NY from Pittsfield, hope you guys dont mind me jumping in

 

18667868474

That's it Dr. you got it. Replace that thing before it gets worse

 

Welcome

 

No problem! I also had a grinding noise for over 2 years lol. I have to really pay attention and see if it went away. I always have my music up so I'll have to remember to turn it down and listen for it. But last night it seemed like my grinding noise was finally gone

 

I have a small 2" lift up front and shortly after I added it, I would get a slight vibration from the front end between 30-45 MPH. Switching to 4 HI made it go away. Usually would stay gone when I went back to 2 HI.

I drove on it about 20k miles like that.

It's totally gone now.

Like others said, it's usually a lift that will do it, but it can happen to a stock truck too.

 

Not at all John. Welcome.

 

So, if the lift is the cause, is it smart to replace the bearings/bushings when you do a lift, even if they aren't bad to start with?
Or just wait until it happens then replace them?

 

You can do it if you want to be preventive maintenance on it. Each truck appears to be different, mine I did the lift around 35k miles and didnt replace the bearing until almost 100k on the truck. Some guys go 5k miles and it starts having issues. I would say do the lift and see what happens.

 

@jztacoma How much lift did you go with?

 

First lift was 2.5"-2.75" (ARB's Old Man Emu kits with 885 coils)
Right now I am running custom set of coilovers but still floating around that 2.5" of lift. I chose less lift just because of not wanting to max out my CVs and also match the rear Dakar Pack. This spring going to an All Pro leaf pack (not sure which one) so I'll probably crank the front up to around 2.75"