Regular Cab Prerunner Driveshaft Slip Joint

Not finding too much for 2wd 5 speed prerunner driveshaft write ups but getting a noise while coasting in gear I decided to remove my DS. To my surprise when I removed the front end it started leaking what must be gear oil. The slip joint appears to also seal the rear of the transmission as there’s no other place to put fluids than the fill and rain plugs on the case of the transmission. It looks like a drain and fill of gear oil has to be part of any driveshaft service on this particular vehicle configuration. Or at least catching what drops out and replacing it but a good amount dr even for the first few seconds Has anyone had any experience with this so far?

 

The small amount that drips out is not worth your time to fill back up unless it’s been leaking for an extended period of time.

 

Nah it probably isn’t - it’s super high above the fill plug which initially had me concerned that there was something I missed, but I guess it’s just oil slung into that area.

Still kind of an inconvenience having a sealing surface on the DS to protect while servicing the u-joints compared to other designs. The whole thing started with a noise that sounds like what many people have found to be their slip joint and / or u joints once they lifted their trucks or right from the factory on these regular cabs. Prerunners don’t have any zerks to grease so I was hoping that adding some grease to the slip yoke splines would do something but seeing how they are bathed in oil it doesn’t look like that could be the problem. The u joints all look good and feel tight too which makes it more unusual. At 185k miles maybe it’s time to replace them anyway though.

 

Yes the 2wd trucks get a slip yoke as opposed to a flange that the 4x4s have. The ujoint size is the same between all the Tacomas so you can replace with a greasable ujoint if you desire. There are pros and cons to each of course.