Front differential stripped housing?

Hey tundra folks, Im getting ready for a cross country trip in 7 days and this weekend started my pretrip inspection.

After pulling the armor, I put a small ratchet on each suspension bolt to see if anything has came loose since my last trip and warranty job.

about 3 months ago Toyota warrantied my front steering rack due to a bad leak.

I found the driver (right rear) differential mount finger loose. I barely pressed on my 6” ratchet and the bolt spun.

looking online it appears this bolt threads into the front differential and doesnt have a nut….

I tried to snug it up but it wont tighten, just spins. Please tell me Im missing something and the tech who pulled my diff didnt strip the case when the installed the steering rack..

help!!!!

 

Hmm… definitely a possibility that a 20 yr old shithead with an impact did this… I’ll crawl under mine later and see but I’m sure they dropped the diff to get the rack, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all. I’m sure they’ll deny stripping it and say you did it when you cranked on it.

 

I 100% know they dropped the dif to swap the rack.

 

Don't do anything. No one could expect you to inspect that work. If you are suspicious take to dealer first thing in the morning.
It's on them, and you have a good reason to ask if it's correct before you find yourself on the side of I-Anywhere!!

 

Wish me luck, I'm going to Toyota today to tell them it’s stripped. Man I hate taking my truck in to dealerships. Even if they do replace the case, I hate to think about the detail of work, since the tech will be eating the labor.

 

This is necessary evil. If you do anything yourself after they make an error you have no protection.
Just don't be entitled, be really polite and just request that they confirm what you think is the issue. Let them know that
a long family road trip isn't a good time to be calling them back on the phone.

 

drill-tap-helicoil is hopefully what they do if anything.

 

Well that’s exactly what they did. They said it’s a tapered insert very similar to a helicoil. They put it on the lift and was done in an hour. Fingers crossed we are golden.

 

Enjoy your trip!

 

Thank you! It shall be a blast.