third member insight

[mendozer]

so my mechanic buddy says my pinion bearing is bad and it's a big job. After a bit of research here, I found the resource for identifying different diff sizes and gear ratios. The source also mentions different ratios for tire sizes. I changed from stock to 32s (256/75/15). Did I screw up the differential myself by putting bigger tires on it?

I had Redline in there, and while I hadn't put new stuff in since mid to late 2016, I don't use the 4WD all that often.

Is it worth fixing this bearing issue or just buy a ECGS kit? I've only found e-locker versions of OEM on ebay

 

[dogtail]

so my mechanic buddy says my pinion bearing is bad and it's a big job. After a bit of research here, I found the resource for identifying different diff sizes and gear ratios. The source also mentions different ratios for tire sizes. I changed from stock to 32s (256/75/15). Did I screw up the differential myself by putting bigger tires on it?

I had Redline in there, and while I hadn't put new stuff in since mid to late 2016, I don't use the 4WD all that often.

Is it worth fixing this bearing issue or just buy a ECGS kit? I've only found e-locker versions of OEM on ebay

Sounds like regular wear on the pinion bearing. One thing that can prematurely wear them is having a vibrating drive shaft, so make sure that's good. Not sure how many miles on your rig. My original pinion bearing crapped out this Summer at just over 300K, my driveshaft was getting kinda sloppy out of balance and most likely did it in, although mileage a factor too. Because all my rearend bearings and seals were original I opted to just rebuild the whole rearend. If you rebuild the rearend, make sure they really know what they are doing, easy to screw them up with improper bearing and seal install.

 

[mendozer]

Okay a little more information. 2002 with 162000 Miles. I did the axle seal replacement 2 years ago but the bearings looked good so I left them. Been having Redline gear oil in the rear differential. The only off-roading I do is when I'm hunting so for the most part it is a city vehicle. I do not have the E Locker and looking on eBay if I were to buy a used Toyota 3rd member a lot of them have the E Locker which I don't really want. So if I end up replacing the whole thing I'm not quite sure what gear ratio to go with since I have a choice when I buy a new one. I put the bigger off-road tires on in the early summer of last year if that matters. I did not have any grinding before that. But the first two years that I owned my vehicle I had a crazy steering wheel wobble on the highway and it took forever for some shop to finally figure out it was a really really bad wheel balance problem