Are the 3rd gen slip yokes greased off the line

aloha guys,
Im curious to know if the slip yokes on the 3rd gens trd sport 4x4 come pre greased off the factory line? We know the u-joints were dry, or mine was and so were others on TW, which leads me to think maybe the slip yokes are too. Im getting this clunk from my driveline and i feel like its the cause from other research.

 

They come in packing/shipping grease. I had horrible clanking/thumping from mine. My dealer greased it and solved the problem.

 

Thanks! So you recommend greasing them? I feel like the dealer may give me a hassle about doing it so i may have to do it myself.

 

Yea, I would. I'd also make them do it. They are the ones that sold you the truck that they didn't do a pre delivery inspection on.

 

Can someone please explain what a slip yoke is and where it is located? Is in on both the standard and automatic?

 

It's a drive shaft coming out of T case.

It expands and contracts for axle travel up and down.

 

It's a slip joint located under the boot on the rear driveshaft. It allows the driveshaft to shorten and lengthen under suspension travel. In this case it is not moving we'll under axle rotation(wrap).

If you pull the boot, mark the strap positions for balance purposes and buy new straps as they are not reusable.

$17 Ford XG8 Genuine Ford Fluid XG-8 PTFE Lubricant - 3 oz.

Ford XG8 is the stuff you want to use.

There is also the possibility the joint is locking up due to seal/vacuum; no relief hole for slip joint.

 

I don't believe on our tacoma it's called a slip yoke.

Google slip yoke wrangler and you'll get many slip yoke elimonaror kits. The shaft sticking out of our Tcase doesn't move just the drive shaft.

I almost bought an eliminater for my TJ. Be glad toyota did it for us on this.

 

A slip yoke is a slip yoke, regardless of where it's at on the driveshaft, the concept is the same with the need for slipping in and out and grease facilitating that movement smoothly, also the same.

 

The clunk is the sound of the axle building up tension then releasing causing the thump or the feeling there's a basketball in the bed rolling around hitting the bed.

This thump is from axle wrap... when coming to a stop the axle rotates a small amount which changes the angle of the drive shaft momentarily.. u-joints and the "slip yoke" AKA Carrier Bearing take up the changes in angle and since the angle changes so does the length of the drive shaft.

2 ways to fix this ...

1st one is $20 carrier bearing shims. This drops the carrier bearing/slip yoke down about 1/4 - 1/2 inch and that seems help with the sliding in and out of the drive shaft when there are changes to the angle and or travel of the drive shaft. The clunk feeling is the carrier bearing releasing the tension all at once instead of sliding like its designed to do.

2nd fix is having the carrier bearing lubed .. there's no fitting so no easy way to lube it. There's lube in there from the factory and its some special type of lube that is super heavy duty. If there wasn't any in there at install you'd have a much larger issue.

They make aftermarket carrier bearings with a zirk fitting so you can lube it or you can CAREFULLY add a zirk fitting yourself or get a mechanic to do it for you.

Also getting stiffer rear springs AKA AALs will help tame the axle wrap.

I went the AAL's and suspension upgrade and added the Carrier Bearing shims. That fixed it for me. Actually it was fixed with the carrier bearing shims... Carrier bearing shims are an easy 10 minute update VERY easy to do. I recommend trying that first since its the cheapest solution.

You should of course ask your dealer and see what they have to say... I just took care of it with the shims. To lube that carrier bearing properly the drive shaft needs to be dropped down and taken apart and put back together. Not sure the dealer ship will do that, but you should ask and let us know....

 

I just saw a post on here where the Op said that the dealer drilled a small hole to relieve the pressure buildup from the "slip yoke" moving, when coming to a stop...

Take a look... Sounds like Toyota approved this Mod....

 

Thanks guys! Im gonna try to do it myself to avoid any hassle if any...plus at least ill know it gets done. Imma try the carrier bearing shims. Im also going to be getting 5100's with OME springs and wheelers progressive 1.5" aal. Hopefully it takes care of the problem as well as give my truck a nice look

 

Definitely check up under the truck first and rotate the drive shaft around (carefully, dont want anymore pancake owners), and you might have some zerk fittings in place already. Toyota went funny with 2017 and decided we were not competent enough to take care of 'em (probably a good thing in some respects as Ive seen/heard a few truck owners packing those things completely full of grease).