Tacoma 3.4 sr5
4x4 33x12.50 3.91 gears
5 speed manual sitting at 225k
Clutch replaced at 184k

I purchased this truck at 155k miles; at the time of purchase, the rear end would click only while making turns. Drove great going straight or aside from that, including off-road. Back in December 2021 at 220k miles the rear diff finally decided to leave the chat. Through recommendation I had my 3rd member rebuilt by East Coast Gear Supply in fairly quick timing(Even learned that my truck has a locker!!). Once I got the 3rd member back From ECGS, it was installed and filled with 85-140 Lucas Non Synthetic Diff Fluid as specified by the East Coast Gear manual. Unfortunately for me, the noises persisted. About 2 weeks back, my clutch pedal hit the floor and I thought I had managed to drive the truck until it broke. New master cylinder installed and my clutch was back but even then, the clicking persists . My U-joints are greased, I went a little over board with the grease gun xD. It doesn't sound like the noise is coming from my 3rd member but Im not sure where to look, just drained the diff from the 500 mile break in period and nothing looked abnormal...

I am attaching a 10-15 second clip, you can really hear the noise in particular about halfway through: https://streamable.com/3xp393

Any suggestions/tips would be greatly appreciated, I have cross posted this on another forum as I'm desperately trying to solve this noise with all the money I've dumped in this truck lately :/

 

Edit- Ignore comment

 

Front CVs?

Did you have any shavings in your oil in the rear diff? Could it be an axle bearing?

 

The oil in the rear looked as would be expected after the initial break in stage. The noise sounds like its coming more from the center of the truck under neath(near the trans) rather than from the front or rear I've had times where I put the truck in neutral and roll, sounds money. Other times the click happens regardless of being in gear or neutral.

 

Easy.....it has an auto-locker....probably a Spartan. The noise is normal. The manual tranny means that it might makes some really weird bangs and clunks in the parking lots and that is perfectly normal. If you didn't know any better you would swear something is broken

If you don't do any tough trails then maybe having the locker removed is the best option....go back to an open diff. Then it will be perfectly quiet on the road.

 

Oh wow! This would make perfect sense. When I say East Coast Gear Supply helped me discover my truck had a locker it was due to there being no switch in the cab (AKA autolocker). The guts of the 3rd member I sent down to east coast gear supply did seem a bit different than the one I got back (obviously because it was rebuilt correctly). However, the truck has run phenomenal outside of that clicking. The truck is more of a farm truck I use around my property, for getting grain and tooling on the road. Once I get it checked out Thursday to make sure there is truly nothing wrong with it, my state lets me (and I've been running) farm use plates. I figure if I cut the muffler it'll quite down that clicking

Thank you a ton my friend, your reply has done me best so far