How bad did I break it?

Wow, that's some real breakage there.
All fixable.
Good luck with your truck.

 

It looks like your diff has the temperature sensor. Be sure that the incoming one has one also.

Good luck!

 

Don't do drugs?

 

Can you more clearly describe the conditions around the breakage? CVs and the tube at the same time is really impressive. Was the steering wheel turned one way or the other?

 

Wow, some serious snappage there. Nowadays, traction control over spinnin & rockin.

 

Damn. New definition of "rode hard and put away wet".

 

The 3.5L has more torque than people give it credit for?

 

@BlueFox18

I have an complete ADD tube from my 2nd gen that you can have if it helps. I believe the front diff is the same between 2nd and 3rd gens.

 

Wow, so was this a ton of wheel spin or just a perfect storm of "who the fuck knows how that happened?"

 

Compound Fracture! Damn son!

 

That's very well done. Congrats!

Actually not that bad a fix once you source a whole assembly with cv's and the right ratio.

 

happened to me about 7 or so years ago, the add connection and stub shaft is the weak link

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-deleting-add-system.427258/

replace with fj tube for best reliability.

 

Be prepared, stuff breaks.

 

yup diff tube. I upgraded mine to the fj tube which was pictured. Mine broke too…. My issue was the cb popped out when locked. Torque loaded and then unloaded and it all went kaboom. Are you locked in the front? Sorry if it was mentioned. Kinda came to the party late.

I would recommend getting an entire diff and robbing the parts off of it. Can get them pretty cheap from the wrecker. Brand new the diff tubes can be kinda pricey and you have to get it all assembly. If you’re paying labour it’s most likely going to be cheaper that route.

 

With the way his wheel looked in that snow this wasn't the extra slippery surface we all imagined. I'm not so sure the first cv break didn't just bind up and allow torque to continue into what was left. Other thing is when drivetrains are wound up strong the shock load from the first part that goes overloads everything that's left and takes it out too. It's not uncommon to see a good break take out many parts at once.

 

The picture came from the next day recovering the truck out of the trail. Unfortunately I didn’t get as much documentation of the actual break. my wife was standing back in a safe spot and caught some Video prior to the event. I might go capture some still from that and upload.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not 100% sure on how it happened.
As mentioned earlier, I was stuck up pretty good and was in “let’s try anything that seems to be working” mode.
I was in 4L with the rear diff locked (no front locker) and while I did go from drive to reverse a few times, I wasn’t slamming it back and forth. I would break in between and shift after everything stopped.

This happened while the truck was in Drive in 4L with the rear locked. This does remove traction control. If memory serves, I was turning the wheel right and left searching for traction or just some bite. And hindsight being what it is, I was being a little heavy on the throttle so probably had a decent amount of wheel speed. (Guilty of being in the moment and caught up) combine wheel speed, roll angle (fairly heavy passenger down) and turning the wheel right to left to right I can guess that I bound up, caught a hard traction-y surface and BOOM. This is my first time breaking anything in the drive-train so I’ll have to differ to others expertise as to what “should be” normal or not.

Looking back, there’s a lot I would do differently. But I’d caution those who are taking the attitude of “how could this have happened in the snow or in a low traction environment?” If it hadn’t been low traction, I’d have never been in that spot in the first place. Just something to chew on. Take it easy out there and spend the time finding the right tool for the job.

 

It sounds like a really freak accident. I’ve been in similar situations doing similar things many times and never broke anything.

 

That’s really kind of you.
I’ll have to check to see if they use the same parts, but you’re the real MVP for just offering

 

Damn. Glad you are all okay and it's fixable. I really haven't heard of this. Like everyone else, thought it must have been the CV's.

 

I need to find a capable off road recovery service in my neck of the national forest where I live and play. I am pretty careful with my truck, but we go into some freaking remote and hairy country in our Kawasaki Mule side by side.
Walking out to a place we can be found is not the problem, having somebody to call who can go in with the equipment to recover our broken vehicle is the problem!



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