Hi all...first time poster here. I have a 1992 Toyota truck, 3.0 v6, 4wd. At 189K miles Toyota gave me a new engine due to the head gasket recall. Since then a problem has cropped up and continously gotten worse. Now at 223K miles I need to fix it and was hoping for insight from the list. There is a lot of 'slack' somewhere in the drive train. Upon accelerating or decelerating, there is a 'thunk' and sort of looseness. Someone suggested that the rear end with 223K miles has been worsened by the new engine with so much more torque than the one it replaced.

Are their any tests I can do to isolate the problem? I want to so my homework before taking it to someone for repairs. If it is the rear end, what kind of work am I looking at here and how much money? Is this something I should take to Toyota only, or can my local repair shop that I trust pretty well take care of this ok?

Thanks in advance for the help,

Brad

 

Could also be u-joints, to check them grab the driveshaft on either side of the joint and twist in opposite directions, there shouldn't be any play in the joints.

That's all the advise I can give, don't know much about rear ends.

 

I have tried that and there doesn't seem to be any play. I have had a self-proclaimed mechanic tell me it is not the rear end, but some assembly by the ujoints. He said he tightened it with a monkey wrench and it should be better but wouldn't last long and would need to be replaced. This is contrary to my normal repair shop that said it is not the u-joints but was the rear end. This was about 6 months ago.

Thanks,

Brad

 

Jack up the rear of the truck and put it on jack stands. Put the parking brake on so the rear tires cant turn and the trans in Nutral, then crawl under and try to turn the driveshaft back and forth. It shouldnt move very much.

Other than that take it to a driveline shop and not the dealer, they have the proper tools to diagnose it further.

Have them install a locker to handle all that new power

 

Cool, I will try that and see what happens. Do you know the rough cost of installing a locker?

Thanks,

Brad

 

Um not in a toyota. I had my local driveline shop replace EVERYTHING inside my Corporate 14 bolt rear in my 1ton chevy. The cost was $1200.00 this included new Ring and Pinion gears, all bearings and seals, Eaton detroit locker and the labor.

I would think that just an axle rebuild with locker would probably be around $600 to $900 depending on if your gears need to be replaced.

 

Right on...thanks for the help.

Brad