Carrier Bearing Position

I’ve got a few questions about the position of my carrier bearing. I have recently put a lift on the Tacoma and it has had a vibration when driving at 22-28mph. I’ve done some homework on the vibrations and first started off with trying the carrier bearing drop kit, in which, it actually made my vibrations worse. When removing the carrier bearing drop kit and putting everything back to normal it seems as if the carrier bearing is not sitting slightly a-skewed from where it originally was. It was extremely difficulty to line it up enough to get the bolts to go back in the carrier bearing and took some fighting and pushing/pulling of the carrier bearing to get it lined back up to even get the bolts back in. With all of this being said, does my carrier bearing look like it is off-centered? Could this be causing more vibrations? Or am I overthinking it and it is in the right place? If it is off-centered, what are some ways that I can line it back up when taking the bolts out one by one? It was a son of a gun to fight it to get lined up as much as it is in this picture. Not easily shifted back and forth! Thanks in advance.

 

Chasing some vibrations after my lift right now. The Rough Country carrier bearing drop did improve some vibration but I'm installing axle shims at the moment. Kinda sucks.

Like you, I thought the strap/lower bracket was skewed toward front of truck from the factory. So it shows the gap/bolt hole on one side toward nose of truck.

here's mine with the shims installed, which looks cheated forward like yours (and mine from the factory). But yours does look a little droopy, like it may not be tightened all the way. Did you slowly torque it to 27 ft-lb?

 

i fortunately don't have any direct experience with this but i came real close to playing with the carrier bearing. my unlifted vibes were cured with a TSB (OR leafs were the trick) but i remember thinking if i ran into something like this, i'd have to jimmy the slip yoke to keep the carrier bearing in its original position...so maybe slip yoke adjust? might involve loosening carrier bolts and loading/unloading rear wheels if it is difficult to adjust. looks like you are at least 1/4" shifted...and that will change some driveline angles. speculation but maybe will help.

 

OP, What lift did you install and what is your net height increase?
I'd recommend checking the angles on your driveline and compensating with shims.

I'm running Deaver stage 3 springs on the rear. After installing the lift with a carrier bearing drop block, I'd ended up with a two degree shim set.
No vibrations at any speeds.

Cheers

 

As far as location, you have witness marks from the original location. Why not use those?

 

I suspect you are overthinking it, but can't give you an authoritative answer. The carrier bearing spacer was the very last thing I installed during my suspension upgrade project very late in the night well after sundown. I did it laying on my back using a flashlight and didn't care at all where it was positioned. I think the slots are simply to account for assembly/manufacturing deviations. All has been good since then. YMMV.

 

Only remove 1 bolt at a time, in the future.

 

The problem is when it comes to the witness marks and attempting to slide it back into its original position is that it is extremely difficult to push it back that way. I’ve fought with it and pushed extremely hard one side at a time and it wants to fight me to go the opposite way. That is the whole reason it is not sitting on those witness marks: it slide way down and now I’m having difficulty even pushing/fighting it up enough to line the bolts up much less move it another 1/2” up to align with the marks.

 

I wonder if you put it in neutral and spin the driveshaft a little, so you aren't fighting the Ujoints, would it give you the wiggle room needed?

 

That’s actually a pretty clever idea that I didn’t take into consideration. So your suggestion would be: Put the truck in neutral with the e-brake applied and then when I am loosening one side of the bolts for the carrier bearing to reach back and twist the driveshaft in order to help the carrier bearing slide back forward? Right now the carrier bearing is sliding backward toward the differential. Which way would you rotate the driveshaft? Or does it matter?

 

Cant you take off the rear driveline then install the carrier bearing then install the driveline?

 

Shouldn't matter but have the ujoints lined up with the driveshaft.

 

Thank you for that tip. I’ll try that when I get home and see if it helps me shimmer the carrier bearing back up into place. With it rotating like it is, it may be pulling it down when I loosen up those bolts.

 

lined up....
Right now it's at a weird angle.

 

Driveshaft isn't going to move with the parking brake on.
You'll have to jack up the back wheels......or let the truck roll a little if you're on level ground.

 

Shouldn't there be enough play in the slip yoke that getting the cb back on the mount and bolts lined up, really shouldn't be an issue?

 

Yeah thats what i was thinking. Its been a while but it didnt seem that difficult when i did mine

 

Taking both bolts off at the same time is where the difficulty wrestling it back in position is coming from.
IMO.
OP will get it..just gonna take some finangling.

Had mine mostly off recently to pull the t.c.

 

What makes people think there is a correct position? What makes people assume it was in the correct position before the OP removed it?

If there is a correct position, then there should be instructions that describe how to determine the correct position. You can look for those, but you might not find them. I don’t remember the OME carrier bearing spacer instructions saying anything about correctly positioning the bracket.

I could be in the wrong, but I think people are at risk of making baseless assumptions.

 

The front half of the driveshaft being bolted down to the transfer case output flange results in where the center support bearing lands on the frame mount. Nothing else you can do about it.

The only adjustability is left and right due to slop in the bolt slots being larger than the bolts. Try to center it from there and call it done.