Custom Double Cardan Driveshaft Installed

I have been fighting vibrations ever since lifting my 2015 DCSB 4x4 TRD Off-Road with a TRD Pro kit and a Wheeler's 3-AAL in the rear without the overload. I tried shims in .5 degree increments, carrier bearing drops, and praying. Not a damn thing has worked and since I'm OCD, it was really bugging me. I lived with it for about five months and spend DAYS under the truck screwing with it.

I finally saw @EDDO bought a driveshaft for his Tacoma which had a similar configuration as mine, and it fixed his vibrations. I reached out to him for more specifics and found out that he used a shop in the Bay Area called "South Bay Driveline". I looked at the pictures of their work, did some research online, and from what it appeared, they were a top notch driveline shop.

I contacted them months ago and Steve (owner) responded to my email promptly and let me know what he could do. He gave me a price and said to just let him know and he'd let me know what measurements he'd need. Upon seeing the price, I was unsure if I wanted to buy a fully custom driveshaft, so I spent another couple of months screwing around with the truck, when I finally threw in the towel. A little over a week ago, I reached out to Steve again and he got right back to me. I sent him all of the info he needed and he gave me a slightly better price than the first request. I gave him the approval to build it and here's where they get classy. I never called them, they never asked for a deposit or a single dollar. He just said, give me your approval and I'll get it done in a few days.

After a couple of days, he sent me pictures of the raw driveshaft after it finished fabrication, assembly and balancing. He had to wait on a dust boot and then it could be painted. He finished it up right on schedule and sent me final build pics. How awesome is that? I told him I'd be down today which was a couple of days after it was done and he said no problem. I drove the 125 miles from Sacramento to San Jose this morning, the driveshaft was ready to go and all I can say is, these guys do TOP NOTCH work. The driveshaft looked awesome and the fabrication quality was outstanding. All MADE IN USA parts and you can tell they take absolute pride in their workmanship.

I was back on my way within 15 minutes after Steve gave me a few pointers about greasing the slip joint down the road. Repeated the 125 mile drive home, and crawled under the truck to perform the install. I had already removed my stock driveshaft yesterday, so it was a simple matter of installing it. I used a couple of taped up shipping boxes to act as supports for the driveshaft, since I was installing it by myself.

VERDICT: It's fixed. No more vibrations or shudder, even under hard acceleration. THANK GOD!

SHOP: South Bay Driveline in San Jose, CA. Tell them you saw @EDDO and my post on Tacomaworld.com!

BUILD DIMENSIONS for 2015 DCSB 4x4:

A) 1.808"​

B) 3.661"
C1) 2.589"
C2) 2.589"
Driveshaft length (on level ground) is 67.5" for a DOUBLE CAB SHORT BED.
Distance to center of Carrier Bearing from TC flange is 22.38"

PICS:

 

I shudder at the thought of buying that for a fix.

Looks like you got the shaft twice.

Let us know how it is in 50k miles

 

double cardan is the only fix. Shoot how about a double double cardan.

 

I thought about doing this but using the original shaft. Taking the rear section, flipping it around mouting the flange yoke to the slip joint to mount to the diff, then have a shop cut the driveshaft to allow for the extra length of a DC joint, then mount a flange after the CB for it to attach to. Would be ~ 300ish in proper brand new spicer parts.

Someone did what i described above and put down all the necessary parts.

 

You’ll be the first person I let know, bud.

 

That was me. they use a jeep tcase flange from an older cj (believe dana 300), a new DC joint, new carrier bearing, all new u joints = $560ish for me. The front portion of the shaft does not change 1 bit.

 

You certainly can modify the stock shaft, but I decided to go all new. That was the first direction I was going to go, though.

 

I had mine modified for $400. Almost the exact same set up as OP

 

Just for the sake of transparency, these are Bay Area California prices. Everything around these parts costs a bunch.

 

So I put about 60 highway miles on the truck after installing the new driveshaft. No issues up to 85 mph - that's the fastest I went. I do notice an ever so slight shudder right when taking off from a stop. I'm not sure if it's possibly the drivers side needle bearing up front, since it goes away in 4WD completely. I'm going to take my overload springs off since I won't be towing for a while and check the driveshaft angles. I have a set of late 2017 Tacoma TRD OR rear leaf springs which are new. Each leaf is 1MM thicker than the 2015 spring pack and it doesn't have a factory shim, unlike my spring pack. I'd say it's 95% cured which is a huge improvement. I may just spring for a set of Dakars now that I don't need to worry about the driveshaft nearly as much as I did when stock.

 

So for the same thing in Georgia I guess I can look to spend about $300?

 

LOL! If you can get someone to make you a completely new driveshaft for $300 using all USA made parts in the south, then you have some good luck. I seriously don't see that happening, regardless of where you live. That certainly isn't going to happen out here. About the very best price I found was right around $1k from a shop in Sacramento. However, the shop was not as well known as the one I used. The fact EDDO had already had them make him a new driveshaft and it worked, gave me more incentive to spend a bit more for a very high quality part.

 

So, what made you decide to go this route vs a one piece drive shaft?

Just curious.

 

I did not want to run into any critical speed issues with a single piece driveshaft. I felt that sticking with the two piece design was a better long term solution, even though it was more costly.

 

I was mainly picking fun at California...haha. but seriously I had a local shop quote me 500 to add two double cardan to my shaft and balance it. Probably what I will do.

 

I figured.

 

We wouldn't have to do any of this though if Toyota would of used 3 CV joints and just made the truck slightly more expensive. Ugh

 

Yup. I had 95.5, 2000 and 2002 4x4 1st Gens and never had this problem.

 

For what its worth, I had BAD vibrations too after going from 3" lift to 7" lift on my Pre-Runner, so bad that I parked it except short trips. I went visit a guy who has building custom trucks for 30 years. Not, doing off the shelf lift installs, like fabricating lifts, etc. He said goto Rene at USA Driveline. So I did. Going off of what I read here and other places, I asked him about a double cardan. He said he could and would do it, but didn't recommend it. He said he had built several driveshafts for Pre-Runners, a single 4" all alluminum would work better. I was a little skeptical at first based on what I had read, but he had 2 orders come in while I was there. I asked him about the extra movement and weight on the slip yoke at the transmission. He said its minimal. I asked why would Toyota not simply use a one piece to start with? He said clearance. The diameter of a strong enough, light weight shaft would have clearance issues at OEM height, once the suspension has been modified this much, the clearance issue is removed. So, I said lets do it, whats the cost? He crawled under my truck, took measurements, we went inside, worked up an estimate, taxes and all $660, be ready in 3-5 days. I said, sounds good. He said I'll give you a call and shook my hand. No deposit, nothing. It was ready in 3 days, I couldn't come until the next day which was a Friday. I picked it up, said thank you and told him I'd let him check it out after install, he was like awsome! I installed it Saturday, Monday at about noon, he called me and said, man I thought you were going to come by the shop and show me the truck, I laughed and said I'm about to leave for lunch I'lll swing by. I did, lol, he checked it out and we ended bs'n about Tacomas for like another 30-45mins, then I realized, sh*t, I'm late to get back. Again, while I was there, I heard the lady at the desk take another order. He said any issues, come back by the shop. I ran a GoPro under the truck for a while, he was right! Movement on the yoke at the transmission is minimal difference as compared to the OEM 2 piece. I even jumped it off the ground. I have run my Pre-Runner, with 35's on it up to 93MPH (according to GPS speedometer) on 4 trips so far.... no issues with speed.


Just FYI info for everyone. Will keep posted.

 

Oh, he also builds carbon fiber DS's for a NASCAR team, lol, we talked about that too, but THAT was getting into the $1,500 range.