Re: Dealer says I Need a New Axle
2002 Tundra. I'm the only owner, and its not been abused off road. I was thinking I may need new U-Joints since its at 170k miles. The dealer said that I needed a whole new drive shaft, and wanted 1700 bucks for it. I know this cant be the case. Surely the U-Joints and the Center Bearing are serviceable and able to be replaced???? Any Info on this is greatly appreciated.
I just went through a similar thing with my truck at 89k miles. It developed a high frequency vibration starting at 45 mph felt in the seat, steering wheel, floor, and it was audible also. Checked the drive shaft for slop at the u-joints they were tight but the center carrier bearing seemed like a lot of radial play to me, and the bearing was hanging low in the rubber. Made match marks on all the parts, took the drive shaft out, u-joints not stiff, was able to press out the yoke joint just ahead of the center bearing using a c-clamp and spacers (youtube). Removed the staked yoke nut, pulled the yoke and bearing off. The bearing itself was fine and the rubber didn't seem that bad either, just sagged out. So I replaced the center bearing assembly, put never seize on the u-joint cups and pressed them back in with the c-clamp. The factory manual is real specific about centering the joint, using different thickness retaining clips to maintain 0.020" end play, I just got it in and pressed it back a smidge.
An issue I didn't find any previous posts for was that my cross-member for the auto transmission mount was cracked around the four 8mm bolt holes, one crack was 1.5" long! Instead of waiting for & spending $326.00 on a new x-member my boss (who is a metal surgery specialist) cut out the top of the x-member box where the 4 holes are, made a piece of 1/4" thick plate with new holes, clamped it in proper alignment and mig welded it in, all in his garage. Some finish grinding and paint, it came out great and is much thicker than the thin original piece.
I assume the vibration which was only for about 200 miles caused the cracks? Chicken or egg?
Installed the drive shaft and now it's smooth as silk again. The new center bearing seems to flex just as much as the original but it's now centered in the housing. I'll be keeping on eye on the repaired x-member & driveline in the future.
And finally - the repair shop I use when there's something I can't do or figure out quoted me $1,400.00 after finding the cracked x-member to replace it and send out the drive shaft assembly for "overhaul".
