20003 Tacoma Diff drop.

Hi
I have a 2003 Tacoma TRD 11600 miles. Original owner, 3” lift. And diff drop! And East Coast Gear Supply front diff bushing.
My question is I’ve been reading the the diff drop is useless? All it dose is tilt? Thinking of putting it back to stock? I have changed both cv’s.
Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

With 3 inches of lift you probably need it. It helps with CV angle so you'll get less vibration and less wear on the boots. Besides, it doesn't hurt anything having it in there, so might as well leave it

 

It is a tilt rather than a drop...the diff drop kits only succeed in tilting the front of the diff which in turn does effect the CV angles but in my experience, it hardly does anything.

In hindsight I probably would have skipped doing it if I had known how little it was going to change anything, but now that I have it in there I just keep it. It made a noticeable change in the inner boot fins/angles but the outers I didn't notice a thing, I ended up having to lower my front lift down to about 2.5" to keep the fins from rubbing and breaking themselves apart.

How do your boots look right now? I would keep the diff drop in as it doesn't really do any harm on our trucks. There is some talk about how changing the angle of the diff might have a negative effect on how the gear oil circulates and lubricates the gears but I don't think a 1" washer is going to cause any problems...people that stack washers to get a greater tilt/drop might run into that issue though.

 

Boots look fine. Did the driver side in 2014. And the passenger side recently.
I’ve also read pretty much the only issue is boot wear? The cv it self can handle lifted angles?

 

I wouldn't do it again. Imho it was the most pointless mod, it didn't help my cv angle. You are better off doing the boot slide, it's free and your skid will still fit normal

 

Do you have to buy new boot clamps or can you lube and slide the originals over?

 

Pretty sure you have to get new clamps, the old ones have to be cut off I think.

CV axles themselves are usually not what fails, it's the boots that fail and can lead to premature failing if the axle.

That being said, the axles themselves can fail too...and it's more likely whenthey are being put under more stress from larger tires, extreme geometry/angles, front lockers, etc. When my CV gave out it was the inner joint that exploded.

 

Thanks that’s what I’ll do.