leid

Howdy guys,
I have a '97 V6 Tacoma 4WD five speed manual trans with manual hubs. Am currently replacing all the wheel bearing & all the seals on the front axle/xfer case/rear axle. Also rebooting the CV axles. The tripod bearing in the right side tulip is just not serviceable due to severe water damage even though the boot was not torn. The tulip & bearing are not cheap so I might as well get a whole CV axle. Toyota offers reman'ed OEM CV axles (Toyota p/n 434300401084) at an affordable price (approx. $220 each shipped including the $75 core) so am inclined to get one coming. The question I have is quality of the OEM reman CV axle VS a new one. Anybody have experience with these OEM reman CVs? Your input would be appreciated. TIA!

aowRS

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

I guess it depends on your use of the vehicle.

I want with New CV axles from NAPA about 80,000 miles ago so far so good

leid

Andreas,
The fact that your original OEM Toyota CV axles went 407K is a very powerful statement to me. The deep water I constantly deal with rusted the OEM tripod bearing to hell, specifically the needle bearings in the tripod bearing, in only 125K on mine. I replaced the other side with a new OEM Toyota axle at 100K after the original destroyed itself due to water getting in. I think we are on the right track here going with the OEM Toyota reman CV axles VS new aftermarket. But confirmation from someone on the quality of the OEM Toyota reman CV axle would be very much appreciated. I am thinking of running a bead of silicone on the axle-to-boot joint to see if that will help keep the water out of the CVs a little longer. .02

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Easier way to keep water out is to quit swimming in your truck.

leid

That is very sound advice for a rock crawler but is not a viable option for my application. I try to keep deep-water crossings to a minimum. But that is very dependent on the level of the Big Black River, a tributary of the Mississippi, that borders our property in MS. The lower 1500 acres is a flood-plain & can go under as much at 12 feet of water during the winter-spring wet season. I think a bead of silicone on the CV-to-boot joint & using screw clamps instead of the fold-over band clamps will help. If necessary, I will next try to substituted a top-grade water-proof grease with high EP/high washout qualities for the (2) OEM Toyota greases designed for use in the CV joint. The "good" OEM Toyota CV axle with only 25K (5 years old) on it since new shows that at least some water did get past the factory-installed boots. But the bearings are still fine, no sweat. Water damage to the running gear is my nemesis on this Tacoma. But this Tacoma has outlasted the Ford trucks/Chevy trucks/Jeeps by a VERY wide margin. I will enter retirement in just a few weeks now. So there are a whole lot more deep-water crossings in this Tacoma's near future. That is the reason I am changing out all the wheel bearings & seals now. The wet, high-water environment I operate in is extremely hard on seals/bearings/parts. The only worst environment that comes to mind is salt water such as on the Gulf Coast; at least mine is a fresh water environment. I do appreciate your input though. Thanks!

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Time for a Boat !

leid

You best believe that I use a boat whenever the water level is deep enough to float it. But how do you get the boat to water deep enough to float it? With the Tacoma 4WD, of course! So there I am dealing with deep water issues again. I rebooted the one good CV axle and ran a bead of silicone around the axle-to-boot joints after tightening down the screw clamps & degreasing the area. That sure looks like it will help quite a bit to keep water out of the boots until they eventually get torn. The inner dust covers were installed on the old CVs just like they should be. But no outer dust seals were installed. Will need to order (2) outer dust seals with the reman Toyota CV. Pretty sure the reman CV axle does not come with the dust cover & dust seal installed but am checking now.

EDIT: I checked with the Toyota parts dept. & they said that the reman OEM Toyota CV axle does not come with the dust cover & dust seal. Inner dust cover is Toyota p/n 41336-04010 & outer dust seal is p/n 90080-30028. The reman Toyota CV axle is on its way. Will post about the quality of the reman axle when it arrives next week. Sure hope they ship me a good one. It will also get a bead of silicone on the axle-to-boot joints in hopes of keeping water out longer.

leid