The Split Housing Driveshaft Carrier

The stock center support bearing carrier holds the driveshaft in place with a layer of thin rubber. While that’s great for making sure no NVH makes it to the cabin, it doesn’t keep the bearing centered well under load, allows the bearing to sag and ruin driveshaft alignment over time, and creates slop in the driveline during shifts and throttle application.

As it ages the OEM bushing becomes brittle, eventually dry rotting and cracking.

Our upgraded driveshaft carriers keep the driveshaft firmly in place at all times. The more solid bushings ensure the bearing cannot move from center, maintaining torque delivery and driveshaft alignment at all times, resulting in more direct driveline response under all conditions.

Benefits as described by our customers include:

• Smoother low-speed on/off throttle behavior off-road

• More direct throttle response

• Firmer, more direct shifts

• More instantaneous launches

• Reduction in vibration due to driveshaft misalignment and/or rubber deterioration

The Optional Bearing

We are the first to offer a standalone bearing. Combined with our split housing carrier, you can replace everything or only the components you see fit:

• Replace just the bearing

• Replace just the housing, leaving the good original bearing intact

• Replace the bearing and the housing together

Why You May Not Want to Replace the Bearing

Replacing the bearing can be a pain, and bearings typically outlast the rubber. Our split housing design allows you to replace the rubber and outer frame without messing with the bearing. You can purchase the bearing anytime down the road should you need it, so we recommend only replacing the bearing if it’s high mileage or on its way out. Replacing it down the road doesn’t really add any additional work to the process as a whole. Simply the two halves of the carrier and you have perfect access to the bearing.

There are two types of center joints:

• 95-04 Tacoma, T100, and 00-06 Tundra have a 4-bolt flange that unbolts the allow access to the bolt to remove the rear half of the shaft and remove the bearing. Process is fairly simple.

• 05+ Tacoma and 07+ Tundra you must disassemble the u-joint to remove the bearing. This is much harder, so consider this before signing up to tackle the bearing. While you’re there you may as well replace the u-joint.

The video below shows a comparison of how much the OEM carrier gives under load and the improvement with the JXB carrier.

Installation doesn’t require removal of the driveshaft. The 2-part design clamps around the OEM bearing. The old carrier must be removed, so a cutting tool is required.

The exact steps to access the carrier will vary slightly by model, but the removal and installation of the new carriers are the same. The basic steps are:

• Cut off OEM carrier and remove rubber support material with razorblade

• Clamp new carrier around OEM bearing

• 1st/2nd/3rd/4th gen Tacoma (95-present)

• T100 (93-98)

• 1st/2nd/3rd gen Tundra (2000-present

Road and Trail refer to the stiffness of the mounting bushings. Both come with the same durable rubber bushings holding the bearing in place. The Road version comes with rubber damper bushings that sandwich the mounting tabs. The Trail version replaces those rubber bushings with billet aluminum pucks for high performance off-road driving.

We generally recommend Road bushings for any car that's not purpose-built for overland use, since the Road setup has a much lower chance of transmitting drivetrain NVH to the cabin at high speeds or under heavy throttle loads.

If you’re not sure which to go with, the “Give me Both!” option will give you a full set of rubber bushings and an extra set of the billet aluminum mounting pucks so you can try both.