Diff Drop Difficulty

I added a diff drop today. The passenger side went in without issue. The driver’s side was really tough to get down far enough to install the spacer. Had to do some pulling and prying. Eventually got both spacers in and torqued to 85 ft lbs. However, the rubber oem pieces are really compressed in the back, and there are noticeable gaps up front. See pics. Is this normal? I figured everything would sit flush against each other. Should the driver’s side be noticeably harder to get the spacer in?

 

never done a lift on a tundra but tons of silverados, where there specific instructions for which drop bolt was for front or back? have you tried to swap them around? with one side compressed and the other not would indicate maybe that

 

It’s not bad. But it will probably cause some premature wear.
Re do it.
Loosen both sides-but do not remove.
Try to see if you can reposition everything while it is loose. *if u need to, you might have to support the whole differential-drop it completely until you can slide the diff drop spacers in and out with ease-and reposition/push the bushings back in place *
Now when you're tightening-slightly tighten one side. Go to the other side and slightly tighten as well. Then torque it down to 70-80 ft. lbs.

You might see a little angle on the bushing but it shouldn’t be better. Hope this helps bud. Good luck

 

Thanks @dcsleeper408

When you say I might have to drop the differential completely, are you saying there are other bolts/brackets holding up the diff besides the front two that need to be loosened? When I was installing the spacers, I had the floor jack under the diff, but didn't even need it since there seemed to be at least one other bolt towards the rear of the diff that was keeping it from lowering.

 

Just do the 2 in the front. Leave the other one alone.. The diff should lower just a little, but keep the jack under for support because you are probably going to have to pry it a bit to get the spacers out and re-position and check the bushings.