Driveshaft Condition

Hey guys. After lots of delaying I finally got around to lubing up my driveshaft this weekend.. haha. Greasing the driveline and hitting all the Zerks.

However, for only being a 2011 and in Vegas they looked pretty terrible. Rusty, paint flaking off, etc. Would a rattle can of some paint be a good idea to slow down the rust?

We did my 2011 and the old ladies 2002 Tacoma at the same time, this weekend. Her 2002 looks WAY WAY better than mine underneath. Her driveline was clean, black, looked like newish parts compared to mine.

Obviously mine isn't as rusted as some I've seen get recalled. But here are a few photos, and these aren't even the bad areas. These are just the Zerks. I'll get pictures of the rust tonight. Thoughts?

 

Seems overly rusty to me. The first u-joint pictured is factory, the other 2 are not.

 

Y'all "not in the salt belt" folks crack me up. That's not rust. If you saw under my truck you'd faint at be sight of actual rust (other than the frame they just replaced).

If it bothers you, wire brush and rattle bomb bomb it and where you are it should be good for a few hundred years or so. Or rub your drive shaft down with a greasy rag and it should be fine for 25 or so years

 

It's fine, Clean your zerks and grease.

 

Had a ranger from the salt belt pushing 35's and drove it balls to the wall redline or nothing, jumped it with the gas pegged and everything - the driveshaft was rusted way worse and it held up fine. Throw some paint on that surface rust and cruise that baby another 300k miles.

I also sunk my tacoma in a river once. Took several walmart come-along and tow strap trips - probably a solid 24 hours to get it out. But when I did get it out - the frame looked brand new. Still does years later. Now I hate to suggest such terrible ideas but...

 

They're all Spicer though.. is that good or bad. Lol.

And yeah. I think I'll wire brush and paint it maybe. Just a high temp can of black? Do I need to tape anything off or do some prep @vwbuggsy or is it simple.

 

That is not worth worrying about. Like mentioned above, after you grease the fittings, wipe the extra grease off that you push out and rub it over the shaft. Yes. Rub it.

 

Rub the grease all over the shaft... lol. Ok.

Sounds good. I'll worry about painting later. Being in Vegas we don't get too much moisture. Or salty roads.

 

Im trying to find those nipple things to grease on my 2014 tacoma but i cant find them. Any help?

 

If your Tacoma is a V6 Prerunner, then you won't have any zerk fittings fittings on the factory driveshaft, Toyota thought it was a great idea to not have a way to grease the driveshaft on Prerunner's with the V6, 4cyl. models on the 2nd gen Prerunner you could.

 

That rust isn't that bad

 

@xguntherc
If you bother, for this I'd:
Wire brush, wipe down with acetone soaked rag (wear safety squints and rubber gloves). Spray with whatever. I'd use rustoleum flat black personally, I don't think hi temp is required but the engine enamels that are good to 500 are just pretty good paint all around and dry fast in my experience.

Cover or mask off anything you don't want paint on that's nearby, though under the truck it won't matter much really.

 

That is not bad at all, just surface rust.
Those all look like original factory ujoints
originals are spicer

 

P.S.

You can also use the rustoleum from the quart can and brush it on after the wire brushing and wipe down. Then you probably won't even need to mask anything. A foam brush or even a 3" foam roller tends to give the best finish without spraying. There isn't anything going on with the driveshaft that you could really bugger up with paint but I'd keep it off of the grease zerks.

Again, personally I wouldn't even worry about it on your location with that little bit of dust rust.

You could do like us east coasters and spray the whole underside with a rust preventer like fluid film, used motor oil, boiled linseed, etc.

All the best,
Bugs