3rd gen needle bearing

So I won't go into details too much. However, I'm an engineer at Ford, and I work on some projects that have expected aftermarket modification. It's pretty normal for the engineers to design for certain modifications in mind, including lift/lowering, wheels/tires, etc., just depends on the specific platform. I honestly have zero idea how all of these drivetrain vibration problems made it through the Tacoma development cycle. We routinely deal with NVH issues, hood flutter, and all these other things that seem to have plagued the Tacoma platform since day one. Every OEM deals with these things, and then they work on countermeasures to eliminate or minimize the issues. However, Toyota doesn't seem fit to design it out of the Tacoma. These aren't new problems to the 3rd gen, they've been there forever. It's still a great truck, but it definitely has it's character flaws.

 

Awesome post! Thanks for the info share. I'm a bit baffled too. I'm thinking this truck was rushed to market.

 

So, fluid movement in the transfer case?
In your opinion, what's a little?
This is OP's video.
One quart of transfer fluid has enough ass to make it move like that?

 

That's about normal.

 

Lifted my 2016 1600 miles ago. Used 4wd briefly yesterday and got the cyclical growl 50 miles later. 887/5100 and HS 3 leaf. No diff drop.

Guessing dealer won't help with the lift on there? What's my next move. Truck has 3500 miles on it.

 

Put mud tires on.You wont hear it any more

 

Ko2s on it. Mud tire days are over.

 

No noise in 4wd. Assuming it's needle bearing is it okay to drive on?

 

From what I've read it's ok to drive on.

 

Think I'm going to let the dealer check it out tomorrow before I start throwing parts at it.

Bossman. When will you have diff drop installed? Surely between the ECGS and the DD, it will fix it. I can't live with this on a brand new truck!

 

I ordered it yesterday so I will put it on some time this week I will let you know how it works out.

 

Hi its 2018 any update

 

lol I put in the diff drop and it did nothing so I took it out, I have also put in the east coast bushing and it helped a bit (made it less noticeable) but it's still there, so I just zip tie the front driveline and the noise completely goes away. The only real fix is to replace the carrier and super gears with aftermarket.

 

Yeah thats what i have gathered from watching a vid ecg posted. Or if your one of the lucky ones you never get the sound

 

How do you zip tie the front driveshaft? Just do that so it doesnt spin?

 

I have a diff drop and just had the ECGS bushing put it. The bushing seems to have solved it 80-90%, but it is still there.

I think I may remove my diff drop as well - how hard is this to do?

Can you explain what you did with the zip ties?

 

The diff drop is easy to remove, just a few bolts, I zip tie the driveline through the front yoke to the frame it takes long zip tie or a few lines together, I do this to eliminate the spin of the drive shaft which stops the spiking of the spider gears. And when you put it in to 4 wheel drive the zip tie break right off, pretty nice actually. What people fail to realize is the needle beating is not the issue, the spider gears in the carrier are the real cause, such loose tolerance from the manufacture.

 

Worked for mine

 

Any chance the spider gears got damaged when you installed the ECGS? From either using their tool or setting the bushing to deep? I saw that the bushing is slightly longer than the needle bearing

 

Question do you need to add the needle bearing when adding 3' lift. I'v been hearing about this alot and im confused. wondering if someone can help me out on this.