Rear Drive Shaft Removal - Stuck Flange

Attempting to remove my rear driveshaft to replace with a on piece (Tom Woods). I’ve removed the 4 bolts on each flange and the two bolts holding the carrier bearing. Both flanges were stuck but I was able to get the front to release with a few really hard hits with a dead blow hammer. The rear just will not budge. I was able to get it to rotate by driving the truck a few feet (in 4WD) such that the bolt holes aren’t aligned anymore, but still just as stuck.

Anyone have any tips or tricks to break this free, or is there something else I’m missing here completely?

Truck: 2012 DCSB 4WD

 

14mm open end wrench- shove it in this area and pry

 

The 14mm didn’t fit right but was able to use a pry bar in there and that broke it free. Thanks!

 

Sure thing, glad you got it sorted. Very interested in hearing your thoughts on the Tom woods one piece. I am going to have to get something custom done for mine soon too

 

I’ve had a lot of vibrations since I put the 2.5” lift on a few years ago. Now have a bad carrier bearing and u joint. Had a shop look at it and due to rust and damage they recommended a whole new OEM driveshaft, at over twice what I paid for the Tom Woods. Won’t take much to make me happy with this, even if it doesn’t solve all of the vibrations. I’ll get it mounted tomorrow when I have light and post my thoughts after I drive a bit.

 

First time I read it I thought it said "shove in this area and pray."

 

Did the man say to pry with a pry bar? NO!! He said use a wrench damn you. Now put it back together and do it again and this time don’t screw it up.

 

I installed a TW shaft a little earlier this year and I'm happy with it. I'd recommend you grease it yourself before installing. PTFE type. Just make sure you remove and reinstall the male/female in the same orientation.
See my thread about what I experienced and did: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tom-woods-driveshaft-slip-yoke-greasing.766334/

Otherwise, my TW shaft took away my vibes. I believe it's also 3 lbs lighter than stock, FWIW. It was weird the first week not having any vibes on take-off.

I too had a harder time taking off my flange. I was able to whack mines with a mallet and loosen it. Glad you got yours off.

 

Did you reuse any of your bolts or did you use the TW supplied hardware on all 8? The 17mm bolts at the front seem to be stuck in there pretty well and was debating just reusing them.

Mine seems to have the opposite problem regarding grease. They really loaded it up and it will be flying everywhere the first time this thing spins.

 

I do remember using the nuts and bolts supplied to me, but I know what you mean about the front being stuck on there. If the stock fronts fit the flange well, I see no issue in reusing them. Glad yours came with a lot of grease and hope you never need to take it off again.

 

the front bolts are knurled and pressed into the TC output flange, all you should have to do is tighten the nuts.

 

Turns out I messed up measuring my bolt patterns. Rear was 66 and not 60 as I had measured. TW offered to swap the whole driveshaft out for just the cost of return shipping. Needed my truck back quickly so actually got them to overnight a new flange.

Haven’t spent much time on inter state yet, but so far I have felt absolutely no vibrations. Very happy with this replacement.

Anyone want this 60x60? Lol

 

I will be pulling my drive shaft tomorrow to measure it. How long did it take to get your Tom Woods and where did you get it from?

 

https://4xshaft.com/products/toyota-tacoma-rear-drive-shaft?rq=mk_toyota~md_tacoma~yr_any

Very hard to measure bolt pattern with driveshaft on. Wish I had removed mine to measure.

11 days from order to arrival. But I ordered on a Friday night of a holiday weekend. So 5-6 business days.

 

Thanks BackAsswards for the photo and wrench info! Worked on this for an hour unsuccessfully then found the thread. Flange came off five minutes later.