First post, ECGS bushing install, Procomp 7032 Wheels, Ghetto cv axle boot fix, Soft Topper, etc…

Well folks I finally thought I’d get around to sharing my experience thus far with my Taco, and since I have gained so much info from here I figured I’d give some back. I’ll try to keep this as brief as possible but inevitably there is gonna be some rambling…


Anyway, a little background – I got the truck last year used with about 55k on it and it’s a 2014. Came with a spacer and block lift, I wanna say it’s a rough country but I’m not totally sure. It has held up fine and the ride really isn’t that bad or much different from a stock Tacoma in my opinion (my brother has a stock ’12 that we compared). My truck is definitely a little stiffer in the front and has some more body roll, but it’s a small difference. Planning on doing OME or something similar once I get some more $.


Soon after having the truck I noticed some vibrations from the front left. Drove on it for a while just thinking it was something minor with the cv angles being different or something like that, but after doing some research on here I discovered it was the front diff needle bearing. After probably way too long, I ordered the ECGS bushing which so many of you have used for a solution and waited for a day when I didn’t have anything going on.


Finally got around to installing it in my front yard (lol) and I’ll post some pictures for how it went. I definitely recommend getting the puller from ECGS and a new seal just in case (learn from my mistakes). Anyway I did the install with the method of just removing the lower knuckle bolts, and not removing the axle out of the hub or any of that nonsense. So here we go:



Taking off the two lower knuckle bolts:




Used a large flat head screwdriver and mallet to pry/push out the cv axle while my buddy helps by pulling and twisting on the rotor/hub/axle assembly from the outboard side. This was definitely a slight challenge but it really helped having the prying of the axle on one side and the slamming it from the mallet/flathead on the other.


This is how the axle looks after probably 10k of miles with the vibration:

Definitely doesn’t look great but we’re just gonna send it, and I’ll let yall know how it works out.


Pulling out the bearing was relatively straightforward, just make sure you put a bag or something inside the diff so you don’t lose anything in there… Also make sure you are pulling the bearing as straight out as possible.



Now … putting the new ECGS bushing in was the part I struggled with the most. Although there was plenty of room to get the cv axle out of the diff and remove the needle bearing, I felt like I could’ve benefited from more room when installing the new bushing. It was very tight going in there and required some pretty significant force to driver her in, which was very hard considering the tight space to swing anything around in. I made sure to drive it in straight at the beginning, but still struggled to get much progress after getting it started. About halfway through I was worried I was going to mar the edges of the bushing, but I said screw it and kept pounding (with less and less caution haha…). I finally got it in, or at least as far as I thought I could get it. It is near flush but definitely sticks out a bit.



Anyway… Slam the CV axle back in (was a little harder than expected I guess just because the clearance is so tight now and I also don’t think I had the c clip facing down… But once you get it going you will feel it bottom out or click into place. Then used another jack to push up the lower control arm and bolted the lower knuckle back together (wanna say like 118 ft-lb but double check the manual). I also used blue locktight. Then filled her up with diff fluid. About a 6-7 beer job.


Well I took her for a drive (no vibrations anymore so woohoo!) but turns out I must’ve really messed up the diff oil seal because she was dripping diff fluid pretty good when I pulled back into the driveway…


So a trip to the Toyota dealership and I got the new oil seal (47012 part #). Annnnd pretty much the same steps as the day before removing the lower knuckle bolts then the cv axle and then finally pried out the crappy seal with a flathead. Gently tapped the new seal in and we are leak free baby! I will keep yall posted on if I have any problems with this in the future.

Old seal out:

New Seal In:




So onto the next topic: Ghetto CV axle boot repair


When I was under the truck working on the driver side bearing, I noticed that the passenger side CV boot had a tear in it and had ejected quite a bit of grease. Was definitely pretty mad to see this since I just did all that work on the driver side.... So I did some research on some redneck fixes for this and came up with this:

Just got some heavy duty Ziploc plastic bags and wrapped them around the boot/axle and taped it up with duct tape hahaha…. Been holding up so far so good for a week or so of driving. Yall laugh if you want, but we’ll see how long she lasts!


Alright one or two more things before I get tired of typing. Got a steal of a deal on some 285/70/17 bgf k02s with only 2k miles on them from a buddy of mine and went ahead and got some pro comp 7032 wheels for them. Wanted a simple look of steelies but couldn’t find 17 inchers with correct backspacing So I found the procomps for a decent deal from 4wheelparts. However, I did not realize that they were not hub centric wheels. Anyway, got them on and had some wheel shake above 50mph or so. Made sure wheels were torqued down and I was using the acorn style lug nuts – Still vibration. Ordered some 106 to 108mm hub centric rings which definitely helped some and then took the wheels back to get rebalanced and they’ve been vibration free since then. However, I haven’t gotten up to highway speed yet. I will keep yall posted since I know a lot of aftermarket wheel guys have vibration problems.

I also have put on a soft-topper and I highly recommend it. Very easy to install, put up, and put down. Keeps things dry on the inside and seems pretty durable so far. It offers all the advantages of a hard shell camper top with much more convenience and flexibility. Only drawback is that it’s not as secure as a hard shell top.



If you’ve made it this far in reading my short novel, congrats!