How To: Replacing Carrier Bearing

I know this is old news at this point but OP killer workup. Just sent it to another member who was quoted 2k to replace his locally. Bravo sir.

 

This is a great writeup, will be tackling this tomorrow. It might be stated somewhere in this thread, but is it possible to leave the driveshaft connected and crank that nut off with a breaker/ratchet? I don't have an impact or a good workspace, so I was hoping that if the truck is in 4H it would hold the shaft in place instead of a vice. Is this a bad idea?

 

That's how I did it. I was told the transmission puts more torque on the drive shaft than you'll put on it torqueing the nut to press the bearing. Pry up the little steel lip holding the nut. That thing made me nervous because it can only be pried a few times before it's toast.

 

Ok sweet that answers exactly what I was concerned about. I assume you're talking about the nut that needs to be staked? I am hoping it can be reused because I didn't buy a replacement lol

 

I knew if I read far enough into this thread and the Dana/Spicer unit was mentioned enough times, someone would provide the answer to what I was seeing at Rock Auto.

FWIW, this is likely the consequence of Dana realizing there are cheaper alternatives and going to China for manufacture with the "25" iteration, aka "Spicer Select" -- sounds fancy, don't it?

I paid $5 more for the Japanese version, and happily so. There's no reason to think the Chinese version isn't just as good, however.

One thing I never figured out is why some center bearings have a different width spec (listed early in this thread,) but at this point I'm over it. After looking at several places online, I realized they all correspond to Toyota's 37230-35130 part # regardless.

Hopefully this is next weekend's project and that none of my U-joints are bad. Gonna start with just this for now though.

 

OK, new Dana/Spicer center bearing replaced. Did not remove front nor rear driveshaft. Used 2 jack stands to support them both depending on what I was doing at the time. Sometimes lowered, sometimes raised back up the center bearing. Original bearing was not horrible. A bit off center, but not destroyed like some become.

Overall, I replaced the wrong part causing our vibration and noise issues (195,xxx miles.) Shakedown run revealed what I suspected might need attention: Something else. We still have our same collection of curious squeaks, odd rattles, "chirps," vibrations and so on just driving around town at lower speeds.

One happy discovery is that the U-joints and cardan joints all have zerk fittings. Thought I'd read earlier in this long thread that was only for the 4WD models. Mine's a 2WD PreRunner, DoubleCab. If I knew that when I bought it at 138,xxx perhaps this could heave avoided.

My inclination is to start with one U-joint, splooge it with grease, test drive and move on to the next to discover if none are helped with the splooge. I don't have a workbench at the moment to drop the entire assembly and examine each joint as a whole project.

That said ... I do have a tailgate. Mebbe I'll check out that U joint tool for tapered joints, too.

 

My 2wd has a few zerks, and greasing does help. If grease doesn't unlock them, replace. But I think driveshaft vibration is a repeatable speed-dependent shudder and a little more noticeable under load. You might need a front end rebuild to get rid of all that vibration and squeaking, unless you can identify individual worn out parts with a prybar or visually. I started with easy stuff like the sway bar bushings and shocks, but it needed more.

 

My noise is coming from somewhere behind the front end and is throttle/load dependent. It's not the front end.

 

When my carrier brg was going bad the truck exhibited a noticeable axle wrap kind of feeling, when starting off after a very slight delay I'd get a subtle clunk in the drivetrain felt through the wheel and floor. That was the drive shaft wrapping over about 3 degrees and 3/4" of an inch the slack in carrier brg was allowing it to move. Once I swapped out the carrier that went away. The slop in the bearing prior to replacement was easily felt when grabbing the drive shaft near the carrier and shaking it.

 

update:

Went back to grease the U-joints and Cardan joint. Did the front, did the rear. Wasn’t sure how much to add to rear yoke but stopped after I shoved so much grease in that the rear shaft started to be pushed forward. Hmm.

I skipped the Cardan joint, because what had not realized earlier is that it’s TOAST. Even without being disconnected it flops around and makes a little sound very reminiscent of what we hear when driving. Gotta be where the vibration is coming from.

 

Ridefreak, how much work/trouble is it to change carrier bearing? I have slack in bearing and cracks in rubber as well as worn out transmission mount. You can feel it when accelerating from stop. I intend to replace tranny mount as well as carrier bearing. Isn’t removing driveshaft best just in case u joint also bad. Any advice appreciated. Truck is 2000 prerunner and 373000 miles . I suspect items are original!

 

Nice write up, changing carrier/center bearing soon