Any way to differentiate between failing double cardan joint or a failing rear most u

[dogtail]

No one knows what they are because Toyota is weird like that. I don't know if it is still the case, but a while ago you could not get a T100 2wd front inner wheel bearing from anyone but Toyota. You can't even get the double cardan u-joints from Toyota so there is no part number officially. There is a u-joint out there to fit it by measurement but I don't know what it is. My local driveshaft place says they can't rebuild it. You can get the double cardan u-joints for a Tundra from Toyota, but the last one I tried to do for a customer fit terrible and after a lot of wasted effort and two $75 u-joints I threw it in the scrap pile and called my salvage guy for a good used one. (I'm 51 years old, all my first 4x4s were solid axle and I do this for a living, I've rebuilt a lot of double cardan joints) If you have a driveshaft place that can rebuild it great, otherwise buy one from Tom Woods.

You live only about 1:15 hrs away from my driveline shop. I can vouch for the double cardan work they've done for me.
Mitchell Differential Custom Axles and Differentials |

 

[MaineRunna]

You live only about 1:15 hrs away from my driveline shop. I can vouch for the double cardan work they've done for me.
Mitchell Differential Custom Axles and Differentials |

Thanks, so good to find other resources. We had a good driveshaft place in Portsmouth, but it closed and sold all it's driveshaft equipment to Rochester Truck. They seem like they can only do mostly Spicer stuff. Once I say Toyota they are just like "We can't get any of that stuff" and that's the end of it.

 

[mtbtim]

I'll see what I can do. You're in Cali anyway, I'm east coast Mass hole territory. When they find out you're that legendary Tim the Tool Man Youtuber, they may love to help.

Yeah, OK. I know you're just kidding but safe to say these guys won't be impressed by some YouTuber DIYer like me. I think Sean and I are far from Legendary Status. But who knows, maybe some guys would be star struck by Timmy the Toolman and Sean. Nobody has stopped me on the street or come up to me in a restaurant asking me for my autograph so I guess we haven't reached celebrity status just yet.

I'm in no hurry to rebuild a double cardan joint. If you can come up with some part numbers for the u-joints later down the road, that would be awesome. Spicer u-joints eh? I wonder what the quality of those are compared to the ones you can get from Toyota?

 

[dogtail]

Yeah, OK. I know you're just kidding but safe to say these guys won't be impressed by some YouTuber DIYer like me. I think Sean and I are far from Legendary Status. But who knows, maybe some guys would be star struck by Timmy the Toolman and Sean. Nobody has stopped me on the street or come up to me in a restaurant asking me for my autograph so I guess we haven't reached celebrity status just yet.

I'm in no hurry to rebuild a double cardan joint. If you can come up with some part numbers for the u-joints later down the road, that would be awesome. Spicer u-joints eh? I wonder what the quality of those are compared to the ones you can get from Toyota?

Toyota DC joints if available, but they are not. I feel the same way as you, I try to use best available parts, Toyota oem if available. They said they use either Spicer or Neapco. You mentioned you could use Moog, I'm not a fan of Moog, or Duracrap, etc.... But anyway, these are simple U-joints, nothing magical, even the ball uses needle bearings. I think with good lubing schedule, the shaft will hold up. I'll be sure to get the part numbers on my upcoming shaft rebuild so this can be documented for people that want to easily come up with what they need for not so seemly difficult rebuild.

 

[HiluxSurf SSR-G]

Toyota part numbers for the Universal Joint Spider Kit:


04371-35050 - 1996 to 2000
04371-35051 - 2000 to 2002 Oct
04371-60070 - Oct 2002 to Dec 2002 (rear propeller shaft only)

 

[dogtail]

Toyota part numbers for the Universal Joint Spider Kit:


04371-35050 - 1996 to 2000
04371-35051 - 2000 to 2002 Oct
04371-60070 - Oct 2002 to Dec 2002 (rear propeller shaft only)

What about the Double Cardan U-joints? Noooooobody can find a listing on that.

 

[HiluxSurf SSR-G]

i didn't know that the DC has different spider u-joints.

 

[Mudeprived]

Yeah, OK. I know you're just kidding but safe to say these guys won't be impressed by some YouTuber DIYer like me. I think Sean and I are far from Legendary Status. But who knows, maybe some guys would be star struck by Timmy the Toolman and Sean. Nobody has stopped me on the street or come up to me in a restaurant asking me for my autograph so I guess we haven't reached celebrity status just yet.

I'm in no hurry to rebuild a double cardan joint. If you can come up with some part numbers for the u-joints later down the road, that would be awesome. Spicer u-joints eh? I wonder what the quality of those are compared to the ones you can get from Toyota?

I would not hesitate to go with Spicer over Toyota. Spicer is quality just like Toyota. All the big name driveshaft shops use Spicer joints and it is the go-to u-joint and ball joint in the Jeep world.

I wanted to post my experience which relates to the OP's question and the timing was funny. Just last week I started noticing a vibe from 15-30. It happened one day and nothing till yesterday when it was vibrating pretty bad at all speeds. I suspected the u-joint was dry since I have gone through many u-joints when I owned Jeeps and wheeled in mud.

There was no play but i noticed grease came out of only three caps when greasing so I suspected the joint had a dry cap. When I removed the shaft there was a rough grinding when moving the joint by hand. Turns out the axle joint had a clogged grease passageway to one of the caps which resulted in the bearings drying out.

I replaced the joint with a NAPA joint and also removed and greased the slip yoke. Vibes and stop-clunk are gone.

My double cardian joints were smooth with no signs of dry caps so I regreased em. This shaft has 180k miles on it.

 

[Anthrax]

Is the double carden joint the the same as the the other ujoints in the fact that it shouldnt have any kind of play in it one way or another? I have zero experience with double carden joint but pulled my rear most ujoint and it's good.

Thanks

 

[Anthrax]

In all my wisdom I never realized the double carden joint had 3 zerk fittings for greasing. When I finally learned that i went out and greased that hidden middle fitting and the noise went away for the time being. Thing was bone dry.