I'm on my 4th center support driveshaft bearing

Why do I keep trashing center support driveline bearings? 3,000 miles ago I had the drive line balanced and installed with new u joints and new center support bearing after having to replace the bearing twice before. The new center support bearing now needs to be replaced. What could be causing these to fail? I am a frequent backcountry camper, 3-4 times a year, and I do get a lot use out of my 4W Lo range, but I don't hammer the vehicle.

Transmission mounts bad? Rear suspension out of whack? Where should I look?

2011 TRD with 180,000 miles, no lift, heavy duty rear springs with rear air bags and a popup camper that weighs about 800Lbs. The rear springs and air bags were added 6 years ago to try to correct the "Taco Lean", sagging on the left side. The new springs didn't correct the "lean" but the air bags level it out.

 

Heavy duty rear leaf's(not springs) usually equal some amount of lift.

Are you using oem/spicer carrier bearings?

I'm at 125k on my original carrier bearing with the rear being lifted 1 inch. The OEM one should last a long long time.

When you say they are trashed, what symptoms are you having that lead you to believe they are bad?

 

Use a Spicer part next time

 

Agree with above, what are the symptoms? I contemplate the one-piece Tom Woods every once in a while just to eliminate this issue all together

 

Yeah, leaf's, not springs.

The 3rd bearing is Spicer. Under heavy acceleration I get a loud "clunk clunk" from the center of the vehicle. Up on the lift you can easily move the drive shaft up and down in the bearing housing. You could actually see the driveline slap up and down from outside the truck when I accelerated. From a safe distance, of course.

 

I suspect you're operating in 4X4 a lot more than necessary. Just because you're off-road doesn't mean you're in a low traction situation. Good traction + 4X4 = over stressed driveline components. You rarely have a catastrophic failure, but you do wear out stuff more rapidly.

That sounds like a trashed transfer case. Also from operating in 4X4 with good traction. The inside of your transfer case uses a chain to transfer power to the front axle. If 4X4 is used improperly over time the chain stretches. It will eventually start slipping on the cogs under heavy acceleration. That creates a clunking or popping noise.



It's a long story, but I've had to rebuild 2 transfer cases due to stretched chains. The truck used vacuum hoses to engage 4X4. At some point the hoses got reversed. When the switch was in 4X2 I was really in 4X4. I was smart enough to know I wasn't supposed to be in 4X4 on pavement, but too young and inexperienced to recognize the problem. It was only during the 2nd rebuild in a few weeks that we noticed the hoses were reversed.

 

I installed an SKF center bearing like 20 month ago. 20 000 km later (and 2 winter with salty road) i have no problem with it. I recommend the Spicer/OEM (i think it's spicer who made the Toyota part, don't quote me on that) since they seem to last, but mine is rock solid so i'm not disapointed, the Spicer was back order for like a year when i needed one. I had a weird high pitched sound for like 1000 km. And isolated the sound to the bearing. I started to put some grease (like the one i use for the driveshaft joint) on the seal and the driving shaft. The sound stopped that day. I think it's because of the angle, the driving shaft turn and touch the seal, no big deal.

 

I only use 4x4 on low traction surfaces, never dry pavement and the such, at least not for any distance. That said, when trying to replicate the clunk clunk upon hard acceleration I did pop it into 4W high and gunned it hard in a straight line. No clunking. Then I tried it on a steep incline, clunk clunk.

 

If there is no clunking in 4wd you might have a large amount of axle wrap in 2wd causing the premature failure..

 

You'll have to keep contemplating.

https://4xshaft.com/collections/tacoma/products/toyota-tacoma-rear-drive-shaft

 

They stopped making them.

 

Yes, hence the link in my post.

 

I'm not familiar with axle wrap, what is that?

You may notice technical terminology is not my strong suit...

 

I will play devil's advocate. What makes you think the center support bearings have gone bad?

 

Axle wrap is when the axle twists under load and the pinion moves up and down, it can cause premature u-joint and carrier bearing wear. Since you said it goes away in 4wd, I was thinking the added traction from the front end is taking stress off the rear and making the symptom less severe.

 

Up on the lift you can easily move the drive shaft up and down in the bearing housing. You could actually see the driveline slap up and down from outside the truck when accelerating.
When the one before this last one went bad I was in soft sand and barely moving forward in 4W Lo, you could see the drive shaft slap up and down in the bearing housing and hear it making glunking sounds with each revolution.
With that one, and the one before it, you could easily move the drive shaft up and down in the bearing housing, same as this last one.

 

Well shitty shit...

Maybe take a few pics of everything so we can? What describe does sound like a ton of play

 

Tom woods just discontinue them?? I was signed up for when they came back in stock and just got notified 5/1..

 

I have a movie but it won't let me attach a .mov file to my reply.

The folks that re-built and balanced the current driveshaft installed the bearing backwards on the driveshaft according to my mechanic, but I can't see how that would effect things as long as the flange surfaces were flat and flush with each other and aligned when the bolts were tightened. I doubt the other two bearings were installed backwards as well so I'm not hanging my hat on that being the cause.

 

You can upload to YouTube and then link here if you want. Or just grab a few pics next time you're under the truck