Land Cruiser Clunk - How to Replace the Front Differential Bushing 

The clunk forms because of wear on the drive train, which happened sooner on full time 4WD vehicles with strong engines, especially those that worked hard, perhaps towing a heavy load, hardcore off-roading, or perhaps didn't have their fluids replaced often enough. Have someone shift back and fourth between R and D while you listen and look at the undercarriage (as you did). Use plenty of caution to not get run over. You'll be able to tell if the cluck is coming from the rear diff, drive shaft, or front diff, or a combination of those. If you hear it from the back diff, then it's either a worn back diff, or shaft, or both. Same goes for the front. Taking out the shaft will tell you more. Replacing the shaft is much cheaper than rebuilding or replacing the diffs. In your case, since you see the front CV axle travel when if clunks, then the front diff is likely the issue or a culprit, in which case, replacing the shaft alone may not resolve the cluck. Same goes for if you see the rear CV axles travel. If you're already going to all the trouble of removing the shaft or diffs, replace the boots on all the CV axles to get a good look at their joints. If they look fine,I'd put them back together with fresh factory boots and grease. If the joints are worn, it's time to replace those as well. Since it's a land cruiser, you can keep driving the vehicles until you experience gears slipping or the clunk is very loud. In the meanwhile, a viable workaround is replacing the diff's fluids with good old non-synthetic oil. That will help with holding everything together inside the diffs more tightly, whereas synthetic fluid will not provide that dampening to the work gear wheels. If you don't live in a cold climate, and don't use the vehicle for long regular commutes, you can go a bit thicker than factory recommended and see if that helps. If it doesn't help, just drain and go back to regular viscosity. In a clod climate, I'd stick to the factory recommended regular oil.

Put the bush in the freezer over night until just before fitting it, it will shrink and go in a lot easier, also use some lube on it.

Lol the Brandon "I did that" was funny, liked and subscribed 😄

Oooof, always hate those clunks. Great job on the fix!

To reduce the clunk on my '99 Land Cruiser I replaced the 3 front diff bushings . There's one on the front as you replaced , one on the rear of the diff , and the bushing on the arm to the diff tube on the drivers side . I also replaced and greased with moly grease the front wheel flanges . They are splined to fit the CV Joint splines . The front flanges are a disposable part and not expensive . Then I greased the drive shaft u-joints and sliding tube with Moly grease . I will re-grease the drive shaft when I do an oil change .

Oh snap I actually do be needing to do this. My LX470 gots the same clunk.

Thanks for this video. The clunk from the drive axel is the drive flange they get worn hence the clunk

Please make video on driveshaft too I have same problem even after changing bushings

Grease you driveshaft at the universal’s, that should help a lot.

👍

When I go over speed bumps, I hear a loud clunk in the rear. Also when I speed up to 60 mph and higher, I get shudder and steering wheel shake. I am thinking its the cv axle.

It was probably a good idea to replace that worn out bushing anyway. I’ve had some clunks when shifting and greasing the ujoints has helped, but perhaps that’s unrelated. I try to grease the ujoints on the driveshafts with each oil change, might be worth a try if you haven’t lately. Good luck!

Whats ur wheel and tire sizes bro?

Do you have the part number for the bushings?

Did you replace the upper cushion? I see it still has some movement. When you shift

Thanks for the vid bro. Do you think changing the entire diff would stop the clunk? I still have a powertrain warranty on mine so I wouldn’t mind it lol

keep greasing the zirks too

How long has that febest bushing lasted?

prolly just shove something in between the mount and the bushing, and just jack up the diff mount, should just push it out

lol wrong part! the klunk noise is from cv axle and and axle flange

Mystery clunks are the worst!

the whole arm is $185 at olathe

You seem to have patience though. A virtue I do not have.

Look like u have the same issue after replace bushing

Did you find the clunk issue yet?

You pressed the bushing the wrong way.