DIY Replacing Driveshaft Center Bearing

my 05 droops not centered and with all yhe power no issues.you would have had clanking or really bad vibes.nice pics and hopefully no more issues..

 

Good write up- I'll be doing mine soon; the rubber is much worse than yours was . IIRC the FSM lists the large nut that retains the yoke and carrier bearing as not being reusable.

If there is a hole in the carrier bearing surrounding metal mounting case and a cavity in the rubber donut it should be possible to inject clear silicone into it which will restore the rigidity of the rubber donut. It may be possible to do this on the vehicle with the carrier bearing dropped from the crossmember. Support or remove the driveshaft, inject silicone into the hole (clear home depot type stuff is fine), let it sit overnite to dry. The carrier bearing must not see any weight as the silicone dries - so the silicone doesn't get deformed and it evenly fills the rubber donut. This is not my idea originally but I've done this with another vehicle and it worked great and I drove it 200K+ miles with that "fix"

Be careful clamping a driveshaft in a vise- don't tighten too much It doesn't take much deformation to cause an imbalance issue.

 

There was another post on this as well. Someone tried silicone, but it didnt last. It ended up drying out, cracking and falling apart. What ended up working was 3M window weld, which is a urethane product and is much more durable. I actually just ordered a spicer carrier bearing and window weld, and filled it up last night. I injected as much into as possible until it was oozing out the opposing holes (about 1/2 a tube). I did this directly to the new one, prior to install. Having had them fail repeatedly before, I'm hoping this adds the rigidity and increases the longevity so I'm not stuck changing it again next year. I'll be installing the new, modified carrier bearing this weekend and will let everyone know my thoughts!

 

Thanks for the info. I just ordered the 3M Window Weld and will be injecting it this week before we head out of town for a few days. Hopefully having 4 days to cure will be good. Tired of the returned take of vibes.

 

So, will it help the vibes? I'm not sure that it will. The reason I tried it, was to increase longevity of the carrier bearing housing. I injected mine while it was off the truck, and installed it.

History: I changed my carrier bearing (used a cheap one) and U joints (all spicer) when i got the truck in February. The carrier basically lasted 5 months til it was sagging again. I didn't have much vibration, but it was definitely sagging and breaking through the rubber.
So, I finally installed the injected bearing (using a spicer one this time) and had my drive shaft balanced. Unfortunately, I'm getting vibes. I had followed this idea based off another post where as the person had success with it.

I'm not saying it won't work vibe free for others, but for me, it didn't work out. I think its worth a shot, as the bearings are not hard to swap out.

I have gone through and followed the drive shaft guidelines to ensure that my angles are all good. This means the rear shaft to differential is basically 90° (3° shim installed at leafs), and both drive shafts are sitting at the same angle (carrier bearing shim). I'm to the point where the only thing I can do at this point, is install a new spicer carrier (unfilled this time), and hope for the best. If this doesn't work, I'm at a loss. I really don't feel like going to a 1 piece drive shaft. I'd really like to figure out how to make this setup work.

I may try and get a used cross member over the winter and modify it to allow me to run one of the IDELs bearings. I'm still trying to understand how people got those to work. The thought behind it being: the stock one allows for movement and vibration dampening, which is eliminated by the basically solid filled one. However, the filled one will drastically outlast the stock one as it prevents the sagging from occurring. The Idels appears to be a much more durable design, and is not completely solid. It should allow for vibration dampening, and prevent the sagging and wear that we see from the stock ones.

Idels bearing thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...uy-iedls-polyurethane-carrier-bearing.421410/

 

You're correct, it won't magically fix peoples vibes, but in my case it will. Since my driveline angles are proven as sorted out, as long as the bearing housing doesn't have slop in it, my vibes don't occur. Stiffening up the rubber will KEEP my angles in spec and prevent my take off vibes. People have to get their angles right first.

 

let me know how it works out for ya! If it ends up working well, I'd be interested in comparing driveshaft angles, differential angles, shims, carrier bearing spacers etc... I though I had mine pretty much figured out, but it doesnt seem to be the case. I'm wondering if perhaps now I'm experiencing these higher frequency vibrations due to the inherit nature of the beast. Perhaps it's just engine, trans drive train vibrations that I'm only now feeling because its basically a solid mount now.

All I know for sure is, this drive line seems to have issues for everyone and I'm getting annoyed with it! lol

 

I feel ya, it is a very annoying thing with these Tacomas and their two piece driveshafts.

Are you lifted or stock height?

 

Lifted. About 2.5-3 inches all around. I love the truck, but I'm half tempted to find a driveline specialist and have them redesign the drive shaft setup. There are other ways to setup a 2 piece drive shaft, that are more common than this.

 

subd

 

UPDATE: We went out of town for a 4 day weekend so I took the chance to pump my CB with the 3M Window Weld.

Results are poor. The window weld actually worked great, pretty stiff but with appropriate amount of give, IMO. The problem I encountered is my CB donut is now deformed again. Even with unbolting the CB and centering it the best I could while the window weld cured, it ended up solidifying in a cock-eyed position and it's not straight.

I would definitely recommend pumping the CB full BEFORE ever installing it.

New route I'm going is the

$42 Spicer 211590-1x Center Bearing

Spicer 211590-1x CB and modifying it to fit. I'm so very annoyed.

 

That’s the carrier bearing I run.


Works perfect

 

I did mine while it was off and uninstalled. I'm still getting vibes and am not happy with it. I only did this after recommendation from another member who had success with it. It was worth a shot i suppose.

 

so, from what I understand... this bearing is NOT a sealed unit, and requires the use of a dust cover. However, Ive heard that you can't run it with the dust cover as it will rub and cause issues. So, do you really think that an open bearing is going to last that long? I'm kind of curious. I would imagine after a harsh, salty winter especially, that this thing would be toast pretty fast.

 

It is fully sealed and you do not use the cover

 

Yep, your thread is one of the ones I read. I'll update my experience with pictures as well. Thanks!

 

I couldve swore that when this was discussed in other posts, it was stated it was not sealed. Even the photo from the spicer site shows the bearing (open) with a dust cover required to keep it clean.

 

Yeah I wondered the same, but it is fully sealed. It just has a red grease over the caps.

 

shoot, for the price, i may just have to try it out and see how it does. I have been in discussion with the IDELS guys about making a direct bolt up replacement for ours. Unfortunately, the price would be around 190. They are not sure if there would be enough interest in the tacoma cult to cough up that much cash for a replacement bearing.

 

After the failed 3M Window Weld attempt, I went about installing this new Spicer unit this weekend, still need to pull it and paint it but results are good, I have a slight, slight stutter at 10-15 MPH but it's so much better than the stock units were. My setup, with a 2"-2.5" lift is just under a 2" drop spacers to make this setup work. I used 1"x1" square tube, some 1/4" flat bar stock and two 90mm long, M10 x 1.25 pitch class 10.9 metric bolts.