Front diff shaft spin in 2wd while driving normal?

Hey all- I just bought my first Tacoma and first 4X4 vehicle. 2010 Tacoma TRD OR AC stock 82k miles.

I had some weird rumble strip vibration happen yesterday intermittently and went down the rabbit hole trying to pinpoint it. I decided to mount a GoPro pointed toward my driver CV/diff to see if it’s coming from the infamous needle bearing (read A LOT of that 226 page thread) and noticed my front drive shaft would randomly spin like when getting on the highway. I was in 2hi and didn’t engage 4hi at all. Is this normal? I got home and after seeing the video I engaged 4h to check and it engaged just fine.

thanks for any help. Hopefully I’ll figure out the vibration thing soon.

 

Yes, normal. It’s just friction because you don’t have manual hubs. Parts in your front diff (spider gears) always spin and can transmit some of that to the drive shaft since it’s unhooked in 2hi

 

glad to hear! Thank you!

 

put a tyrap on it to prevent it from spinning to isolate the vibration

I like the vibes from mine