Front Diff Carnage

FancyPantsMcGee

FancyPantsMcGee

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A friend of mine was driving into town a few days ago and was in 4wd when the front diff said BANG! The reason it put a death hold on the driveshaft and drivers-side cv is not yet determined. It sheered both of the pinion shafts. the passenger side was unscathed.
It's a 98 tacoma but I figured it still applied, and that some of you would get a kick out of seeing it.
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carnage from the driveshaft slamming about.
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drivers side
 

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nissanh said:
Different size tires?
Click to expand...

not tires. 33x12x15 all around
he opened it up and found plenty of fluid, 2 broken ring teeth, 1 broken pinion tooth.
It has been super cold out the last few weeks. it's 1 degree out right now. truck has a lot of miles too. ~250k. there's probably a mess of factors that contributed to it.
 
Aha... you are using much bigger tires.... This is probably the main reason.

I was just talking this matter with a friend in Australia who owns a prado with 5vzfe. He said toyota front diffs are soft and breaks easily. Nissan trucks on the other hand have solid unbreakable drive train. People in Australia who make hard core off road trucks use toyota engines and Nissan drive train.

"if you doing hardcore 4wd you need good drive train. For normal everyday 4wd Toyota is ok"
 
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I have mentioned this several times through out the past 2 years and here is the proof.



I would contribute the death of this differential to the diff drop.

It may have had plenty of oil in it but was obviously at the wrong level. The pinion bearing ran dry, caused some slop in the pinion broke some teeth, locked it up or the bearing itself locked up and the locked the pinion up destroying it.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/87397-diff-drop.html To refresh your memory...
 
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nissanh said:
Nissan trucks on the other hand have solid unbreakable drive train.
Click to expand...


That's funny. Maybe Shannon Campbell should just drive a Nissan at KOH.


That is a crazy break, I've ran a diff out of oil and basically the gears get so hot the teeth just snap off, no ill effects to the rest of the drive train, it just felt like it popped into neutral. That looks like a severe shock load, like from hopping the front end while pinned. Or being bound up and trying to get unstuck.

That said, it's no secret the front 7.5" is a weak point.
 
nissanh said:
Aha... you are using much bigger tires.... This is probably the main reason.

I was just talking this matter with a friend in Australia who owns a prado with 5vzfe. He said toyota front diffs are soft and breaks easily. Nissan trucks on the other hand have solid unbreakable drive train. People in Australia who make hard core off road trucks use toyota engines and Nissan drive train.

"if you doing hardcore 4wd you need good drive train. For normal everyday 4wd Toyota is ok"
Click to expand...

This is funny,

The only Nissan worth mentioning is the Nissan Patrol....and still the Land Cruiser is preferred in Australia.
 
I don't know that I would call that hard core offroading as much as just dumb. If you want to drag a trailer up an trail like that it should probably have enough ground clearance to no turn itself into a tractor pull sled. You can see in the opening shots of the video just how low that trailer is.
 
Stick Figure said:
I don't know that I would call that hard core offroading as much as just dumb. If you want to drag a trailer up an trail like that it should probably have enough ground clearance to no turn itself into a tractor pull sled. You can see in the opening shots of the video just how low that trailer is.
Click to expand...


I think he posted that video to show a toyota front diff breaking.
 
that truck had a stock drive train, the guy even said that, "as strong as these trucks are, they are not designed to pull 3tons..." they knew they were pushing the limits of the truck. even a nissan would have failed.
 
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