WARNING VERY LONG POST!!!

Okay first off I am not meaning to bash anybody or to make people mad! This post is only being made for two reasons: 1. To make people more aware of problems with changing gears in the Tacoma, 2. To help them decide where to get those gears based on customer service (not price).

As most of you know I have 03 Tacoma with 33's and a few extra pounds and want to go to 35's in the future. I started to call around my local area and found a shop (Alter Ego in Layton) that gave me a great price on install labor so I wanted to take advantage of this and get the gears now. I am leaving to Afghan. In a week so I needed to get it done ASAP (to make sure to break in before I depart).

I had read and heard many times that precision makes great gears for our TacomaÆs that were easy to install. But when we called them they said it would take 5-7 days to get them in! This was not an option so Peter at alter ego asked me how I feel about Yukon gears. I had heard some very good things about them.

He went ahead and called RandyÆs Ring and pinion in WA! They had the gears we needed and told us it would take two days to get them to UT! We only ordered the gears. I felt the 120$ for an install kit was a waste of money when I only had 5000 miles on the truck. Keep in mind at this time RandyÆs said nothing about needing any other parts for the install and sold us the two sets of gears. As RandyÆs had promised they made it in two business days! Very good service on their part.

The gears made it and we went to work! (I was also doing the swap with the shop to learn how to do a gear change) We started with the front diff. Let me tell you it is a BIT#H to get the front diff out because it was such a tight fit between the two cross member drops of the fabtech lift. An hour later we had it out!!! The rear was not that hard and only took 20 min. to take the third out.

This is when problem one happened! As we pressed the bearings on the new pinion the carrier race just broke!!!!! As some of you might now almost no parts stores carry any Tacoma parts! SO we had to go to a dealership that was 40 miles away to get a new one. This is how day one ended (we spent 3 hours trying to find that part)

Next day we started to put the new pinions and gears in the diffs when problem number two happened!! In the rear diff the stock pinion nut was 2mm larger then the new pinion size??? I thought about this and figured out that the new gears for the rear end of a TRD Tacoma are the same ones they use for the 86-95 Toyota pickup! So I called the dealership who had a pinion nut for that year of a truck and it worked!

Now we installed the members back in! (The front took 2 hours to get back in!!!!!! what a pain in the ass! i didn't want to take off the front crossmember for many reasons) we hook up the drivelines and the cv's, etc in the front. All the tires are on and all that we think is left is to bleed the brakes...WRONG!!!!

I had the truck still off the ground and spun the rear tires by hand (truck in N) and could hear a clicking noise coming from the yoke/pinion area. The rear driveline was not turning?? Then we lowered it and tried to drive it out of the lot and the rear driveline would turn but no the tires!??? Same clicking sound.

I set back and thought about this for a long hard while. Then I thought of the pinion nut problem and it clicked! The pinion shaft was also 2 mm smaller and had 27 spline to my 2mm larger yoke with 30 spline!??

This is when a call to RandyÆs happened. First to see if they knew of this problem and to find out if they just didn't tell us or maybe sent the wrong rear gears! I was told that this was the way it was supposed to be and they just didn't tell us this at the time of the order. They said they should have told us and they were sorry. But that we can get that yoke from them for more $$!!????? But I had no time to even take that choice and we found a company who made us a custom yoke at their shop for 50$.

We called RandyÆs back and let them know that they are the gear heads and we had no idea that we would run into this problem and we should have been told of this fact before they sold us the gears. I wanted them to cover the 50$. They told me there is nothing they could do about this and we just had to deal with it. This made me very upset and I let them know I would be posting this info and I had a way of reaching thousands of future customers. I did not mean this as a threat but as a fact. After that they said they would cover half of the 50$ because they wanted to keep me and that shop as customers!

At this time I was so pissed I could not see straight! I cannot even guess why a business that admits it was wrong and will not cover 100% of their fault (ONLY 50$$ mind you) to keep a customer and a shop happy to keep them as a customer and for the word of mouth! Now they have lost hundreds of dollars from us instead of the stupid 50$!!

At this time we think it is all done and take it for a drive and get back and find gear oil all over the rear end! We find the leak in the pinion seal of the rear and call TONY Divino in Riverdale Utah. They have one in stock but they close the parts section in 10 min.. We were 15 min away and Peter at alter ego tells him it is an emergency and we need it tonight is there anyway to keep open for 5 extra min. They tell him no sorry can't do it. I then get on the phone and talk to parts guy and tell him I purchased this truck new from his dealership a year ago and that it is just crazy they can't find a way to get me that part when 5 min is the difference.

Then like magic he says well give me a credit card number and I can ring it up and leave it at the front desk for you. WOW I guess the idea just took a little while to think of. But he did get it done and it was there just as I was told and I want to thank Tony Divino for making it happen even thought it took me to push them a little before it did!

Well we install it and so fair so good! Gears are getting broken in and I can feel the diff even though I am not gunning it yet!! Couple hundred more miles and I can give you all the complete difference I feel! Good luck and I hope anyone else doing their gears don't have to deal with the problems I did. Red

Many thanks for taking the time to post this detailed and objective explanation. I'm sorry to hear you had problems, but glad it worked out.

The pinion stem / yoke issue is the first I ever heard of that. That is a great nugget of info! A lot of people have swapped regeared e-locked diffs into the old axles and I haven't seen any reports of that issue. I wonder if Toyota changed the stem for your model year?

Enjoy this new gears!

Although the tech is very informative, you whine a lot. Who cares if they didn't tell you about the other parts. Is it their responsibilty? I don't think you should bad mouth them for this. Did you ask them? Ignorance is no reason to bad mouth a vendor. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

I agree i do whin alot in that post! There is no doubt about that. And i did ask Randys if that is all i will need to do the install!

So what you are saying is that it is not their responsibilty to let me know all the parts i would need to do the work?? So if you took your truck into a exhuast shop and ordered some headers and with these headers you need new bolts and gaskets the shop shouldn't tell you this? they should just let you try to install it and THEN find out it doesn't work. red

I just don't see it as THEIR responsibility. When you walk into Kragen and get a water pump, do they tell you what else you need? NOPE, It's not their responsibility.

This I agree with, partly. Not their responsibility, but foolish to not ask... if for no other reason than to up-sell... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Ran into the same problem when I regeared my HI pinnion E locker.It appears that the newer production parts have a larger diameter shaft on the pinnion .I used a flange from a used V6 third I had laying around .The pinnion seals are differant ,the dealer I deal with had no info on the larger seals.I ordered my locker from a Toyota dealer

I also "partly" agree. It isn't their responsibility. But any outfit that wants me as a repeat customer had BETTER tell me everything I need to do a job. When you see Randy's shiny ads in all the magazines, their propaganda sure makes it sound as if they're the "pros" and that they have the product knowledge to help you with your project; and they should, they're supposed to be the gearheads, not us. I guess this outfit gets away with it because most of their customer have fairly low expectations (if you don't believe me, why do they drive Chevs, Dodges and Fords?), but those of us who drive Toyotas have just come to expect much better in our parts, service and vehicles.

This is a good lesson for consumers and dealers and why SERVICE is so important, esp. in this instance. A good shop will get you the right parts quickly and at a fair price. A great shop will do the above and go the extra mile to make sure the installation goes well.