Center Carrier Bearing question

Installed new U-Joints and a new carrier center support bearing over the summer.
The u joints are awesome, less grumbling noises coming from beneath.
However, in my last diy inspection of the driveshaft, I noticed the center support bearing looked d a bit weird.
It still drives fine, no noises, no weird things on acceleration either so far.

 

That center carrier is destroyed, you need to replace it.

 

Did you actually replace the entire bearing/bushing assembly, or just the metal clamp surrounding it... because nothing else here looks like it was replaced this summer.

Doesn't matter in the end, I concur with @xtremewlr: the bearing is shot, time for replacement!

This is ultimately a wear item, but not on the timescale of a few months. If a shop did this job, I would go after them, unless you drove like 60k+ miles in this time frame... and even then I'd be disappointed.

 

I'm really disappointed in this purchase from

$77 Driveshaft Parts Driveshaft Support Bearing & Spicer U-Joints Set for Toyota Tacoma 2005-2015

Splicer. After my DIY replacement of old worn out parts on the driveshaft, where I replaced the entire assembly, the u joints seem fine, but the center carrier hasn't held on after a mere 5 months (driven only a bit over 6k miles).

Does anyone know a better place where I can get a more reliable replacement parts? Or should I just go to a shop and have them replace it?

 

This also popped up on my feed when looking for new parts just now - https://a-premium.com/product/Rear-...sembly-for-2005-2015-Toyota-Tacoma-44zpS4AxSj

Wondering if I should just replaced the whole driveshaft myself, in case there were balancing issues with this cirrent driveshaft when I reassembled it back in the summer... Maybe that's why the center carrier wore out so quickly (?)

 

I can't recommend anything better... I have conceded to taking my truck to a driveline shop for such work. And I do damn-near everything else myself.

I like having the driveshaft professionally rebalanced because I tend to bash it against rocks whenever I get the chance. Plus, I don't have a lift, so working under the truck has always been a pain in the ass, and as I grow older, that pain has gradually extended to the rest of my body, and persisted for longer periods of time.

Sorry to hear of your poor experience despite going all-in on the DIY job, and I didn't mean to suggest you did anything wrong.

 

Need to find a good shop near me in NYC then.

 

Hard to image there being a 'bad' specialty driveline shop; I'd accept any which has been in business for more than a few years. Compared to most other types of repairs, it should be easy to shop this one by phone -- based on price, brand of parts, scope of work, warranty, etc. Perhaps you could even find a recommendation on a local thread? If in doubt, drive to the shop and see if they have 'enthusiast'-type 4x4 vehicles in their lot. Toyotas or Land Cruisers... even better!

I think I paid either $100 or $200 to replace the carrier bearing within a week of buying my truck used... essentially the only major issue called out on my pre-purchase inspection -- but I took it to a 4x4 shop for that inspection and subsequent work, not a Toyota dealership or full-service mechanic. That was the better part of, yet still less than, a decade ago... in suburban SoCal -- so I would expect to pay somewhat more today, especially in a major city such as America's Most-Major City. (I remember it being a round hundred number, but can't remember which one!) Nonetheless... consider a 4x4 shop for favorable pricing on this specific type of repair.

A full rear-driveline rebuild last year was probably somewhere between $250 and $450: U-joints, carrier bearing, rebalance, and fresh paint. Sorry, I simply can't recall how much it actually cost--all I recall is that it seemed like a fantastic deal at the time, and this is the price range I'd guess for a fantastic deal today. I definitely enjoyed the glass-smooth ride home, plus they gave me all the old parts as proof of work done. I've since enjoyed throwing these parts across my garage in fits of rage, which has led to considerable savings by sparing the parts of active but frustrating repairs from being thrown instead. I still have at least two u-joint thingies left, despite having hurled several into my neighbor's yard last weekend, and my cat having carried one onto my wife's new couch to leak grease onto its apparently unwashable cushions. This is now a point of contention in our relationship, but we are both in agreement that the truck drives great and that the cat has always been a stupid ass-hole anyway.

 

I bet these nice folks could knock out a new driveshaft in record time.

 

Was that the original carrier bearing? IMO I’d go back with OE.

 

That carrier bearing isn't a Spicer part. I'd question those u-joints too. Don't buy critical shit like that off Amazon.

 

UPDATE:

I took it to a Driveline Shop in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn (NYC). They specialize in drivelines and driveshafts.
They came back to me after an inspection and said that the new U-joints I installed were put in too tight, leaving a lot of wiggle room on the ends and causing the end clips to move around when the shaft rotated. As a result, it wore the center carrier bearing excessively - he said I was lucky that there was no more damage beyond that.

The shop is replacing the 3 u-joints and the carrier bearing for me with sealed (non-grease-able) u-joints and a new carrier bearing, all Spicer. Total came out to over $600 (I'm assuming for labor, OE Spicer parts, diagnostics, and the space my Taco took up in their Shop - in NYC, everything is expensive)

 

Perfect.

 

Good work! I always get dirt in my eyeballs trying to grease the stupid u-joints anyway. And now that you mention it... I think I forgot there were three of them, and have probably been skipping the middle one for years. Doh!

 

Here is the U Joints that I replaced myself as a DIY thing, obviously with the center carrier already worn out.
The drive line specialist said that there was enough wiggle room at the end of the U-Joints ends that allowed the metal clips to wiggle around, causing all that vibration and ending the center carrier.

Here are the new U-Joints and center carrier bearing, from back to front:



The only thing, something my brother and I have noticed in the front seats, is that the motor (or transmission) seems to be much more audible during acceleration only, and I do feel more vibration - all consistent with acceleration.
Maybe the new parts just need to be "broken in" more (?).

 

Well, at least you’re not going to pole vault the truck. Maybe tires need a look at. Broken leaf spring, maybe.

 

i gotta ask - how do you put in u joints too tight.

 

I kept pushing my press tool to the point that the blue rubber seals looked kinda squished in, more than they do here in this pic of when it first came in the box:

 

Freshly rotated tires, so maybe that (still as new BGF Trail Terrains, 5 tires). They still seem to have even treads after over 10k miles.

If it's the leaf springs, might as well wait a bit for when I replace my OEM suspensions for brand new Bilstein's - nothing too fancy, especially if I mostly do 90% Highway/City, 5% Dirt roads, and 5% gravels roads.

 

I don’t understand this either.

Sounds more like it was a shitty gray market support bearing that crapped out and then the driveline shop scored extra cash on u joint replacement.