Front Differential Drop Kit - Before and After Pictures

After installing Billstein 5100's at 2.5" in the front and an AAL in the rear on my 2002 Tacoma Xtra Cab 4X4 TRD i put a good 75-100 miles on it to settle the suspension a bit before having the alignment re-done. Put new wheels and tires on, a little trimming to avoid rub ("pinch weld mod"). Having driven close to 200 miles on the new setup, I have felt no vibrations or had any problems. I had ordered a diff. drop kit from toytec along with my lift components. Just installed the kit today to keep the fins of the CV bots a bit farther from one another. The angles were not too bad, but definitely can tell a positive difference after the drop. Thought I'd share some pictures!!

BEFORE: Driver Side


BEFORE: Passenger Side


AFTER: Driver Side


AFTER: Passenger Side

 

Some guys feel the D/D makes no difference I for think that for the price it can't hurt as I seen a change in the angle on mine after the install.

 

I plan on lifting my truck soon and from the looks of it, the Diff Drop makes sense. Does dropping the diff mess with the skid plate or anything?

 

If you buy a good kit they have some spacers to lower the skid plate.

 

Ive had a Diff Drop on mine for about 17K miles and no problems. Im leaving mine on I dont care what they say.

 

yea on the first gen trucks they make a noticeable difference. ive had one on my truck since i put my lift on and with all the mud and sticks and crap i drive my truck through i have only went through one set of cv boots.

 

What is supposed to be a down side to the diff drop?

 

twfsa - very true, for $20 and about ten to fifteen minutes to install am more than pleased with the drop. ALSO, about the skid plate spacers that come with the toytec kit, i just threw them into my bolt bucket along with the new hardware. I installed the skids back exactly as they were before the diff. drop with the only modification being drilling new holes for the rear bolts on the rear skid plate. The rear skid, back bolts, just drilled holes in the skid and everything fits perfect. will make it much easier for down the road, every time you change the oil or drop the skids for any other work wont have to mess with the spacers and stuff.

mjp2 - very true. just by looking at the diff. mounting style differences I came to that conclusion as well. happy i did it on the first gen though.

Stuardoslls - downside, i believe, is generally when dealing with the second gens. kit really only lowers one side i believe and does not give as much a benefit as on the first gen.

 

I have a second gen taco and put 2.5 inch spacers in the front suspension and installed diff drop spacers and did have to modify some stuff. plus the skid plated didn't fit any more. i had to go to the hardware store and buy some spacers and longer bolts.. But after installing them and putting the spacers i think its well worth it for 25 bucks.

 

Its nice to see positive things being said about this mod. It does make a difference. If your cv boot fins are touching, it is only a matter of time before the boot will tear. If you have high axle angles, get yourself some cheap insurance. Install a diff drop kit.

 

FYI Jason (OP) the pics your showing are the outer boots, which aren't a problem, the problematic boots are the inner boots...
Regardless, it does look like it helped!

 

rab89 - i'm well aware. just showing the change in angle in the pics. noticeable. thanks though!!

 

I bought a kit from Fat Bob's garage and would not recomend them,parts missing in the kit, It was cheaper for me to make shift some stuff then to send it back!

 

i found it a lot easier to just drill new holes in the rear skid plate for the rear mounting bolts than to use the supplied spacers and hardware. my kit is from toytec by the way. just thinking about future drops of the skid for oil changes and etc. and didnt want to have to deal with the extra hardware supplied with the kit.

 

X2

 

Here it is with the new set up.

BEFORE


The way it sits now.



Passenger Side CV


Inner /Upper Boot


Drivers Side CV


What do you think? And yes I did install the differential drop. So I can't explain the angle. It is less then 3" (almost 2.75") of lift with 881 Coils and Bilstein at 1" (middle setting). It was confirmed today the the axle's are being replaced. This problem occured less than one week after installing the lift. Will this happen again? The mechanic at the shop didn't think that angle would cause this, he just thinks they are wore out at 123,xxx miles. Which could be true. So I will get the new axle's Sunday and get them installed and see what happens. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Nic

 

I made my own skid plate spacers (my diff drop kit didn't include them) and used jb weld to secure to mounting points...they're always in place even when I take the skid plate off.

 

Old post but useful - Thanks TW for the archived posts! I was looking for something that showed the difference of a diff drop.

From the pics above I threw them into Visio and eyeballed the angles. Before on the left/After on the right. It looks like about 8.4 degrees less (Drivers) and 5.7 degrees (Passenger). From this it looks like a much better angle.

 

After looking at this I realized my numbers are not correct. My apologies if anybody is using them for science.

This is because the angle of the picture is different for each one. Even when I normalized the photos for the strut to be at 90 degrees, it's still a 3D problem that can't be solved from photos. Given that each shaft is the same length it should be similar angles which it's not.