Best axle for swap (1 Viewer)

[Hugh Heifer]

I had been in the bourbon when I posted so excuse the tongue in cheek response.
Since it is no longer all original one does not have to battle with one's self about modifying an all original rig. 40 axles are pretty stout and given your thoughts about use, I would wager to say remaining with original axles, or any 40 axle will be your best bet. The main differences you will encounter in the years are 1 - coarse v less fragile fine spline birfields; 2 - drum v disc brakes, and then 3- gear ratio 4.10 [4.11] v 3.88. All these can be addressed seperately using the axle housings you currently have. Or, if you can find much later years, you can swap the entire housing and all the parts installed on them for newer more modern equipment.
Since you are talking about a primarily on road truck, altering perches and putting mega axles or axles from another type of LC on it would probably alter your handling more on road than you would like. Focus on driveability and consider adding front discs with fine splines up front. I prefer Toyota (like from a 60 series or minitruck) rather than the aftermarket discs. You will not be disappointed with that mod. Differential gearing, again, depends on tire size and your use. 3.88 [3.70] will get you a bit better driveability in the highway if you have smaller tires. 4.11s will be needed if you are running 35s and you will be able to move along in the right lane on the interstate without being completely run over. I think you will be happier offroad with 4.11s and the discs and fine spline birfs will also be nice. If you stick with coarse birfields, let us know. Many of us have spares we can donate.

 

[jim land]

I had been in the bourbon when I posted so excuse the tongue in cheek response.
Since it is no longer all original one does not have to battle with one's self about modifying an all original rig. 40 axles are pretty stout and given your thoughts about use, I would wager to say remaining with original axles, or any 40 axle will be your best bet. The main differences you will encounter in the years are 1 - coarse v less fragile fine spline birfields; 2 - drum v disc brakes, and then 3- gear ratio 4.10 v 3.88. All these can be addressed seperately using the axle housings you currently have. Or, if you can find much later years, you can swap the entire housing and all the parts installed on them for newer more modern equipment.
Since you are talking about a primarily on road truck, altering perches and putting mega axles or axles from another type of LC on it would probably alter your handling more on road than you would like. Focus on driveability and consider adding front discs with fine splines up front. I prefer Toyota (like from a 60 series or minitruck) rather than the aftermarket discs. You will not be disappointed with that mod. Differential gearing, again, depends on tire size and your use. 3.88 will get you a bit better driveability in the highway if you have smaller tires. 4.10s will be needed if you are running 35s and you will be able to move along in the right lane on the interstate without being completely run over. I think you will be happier offroad with 4.10s and the discs and fine spline birfs will also be nice. If you stick with coarse birfields, let us know. Many of us have spares we can donate.

Diff ratio is 4:11 and 3:70
Aftermarket also have 4:56 4:88 5:29

Damn bourbon

 

[Hugh Heifer]

Diff ratio is 4:11 and 3:70
Aftermarket also have 4:56 4:88 5:29

Damn bourbon

Thanks for keeping me straight. I am not sure what space those wrong numbers were rattling around in. Wrong drawer. Edited for accuracy.

 

[Gnoon]

I had been in the bourbon when I posted so excuse the tongue in cheek response.
Since it is no longer all original one does not have to battle with one's self about modifying an all original rig. 40 axles are pretty stout and given your thoughts about use, I would wager to say remaining with original axles, or any 40 axle will be your best bet. The main differences you will encounter in the years are 1 - coarse v less fragile fine spline birfields; 2 - drum v disc brakes, and then 3- gear ratio 4.10 [4.11] v 3.88. All these can be addressed seperately using the axle housings you currently have. Or, if you can find much later years, you can swap the entire housing and all the parts installed on them for newer more modern equipment.
Since you are talking about a primarily on road truck, altering perches and putting mega axles or axles from another type of LC on it would probably alter your handling more on road than you would like. Focus on driveability and consider adding front discs with fine splines up front. I prefer Toyota (like from a 60 series or minitruck) rather than the aftermarket discs. You will not be disappointed with that mod. Differential gearing, again, depends on tire size and your use. 3.88 [3.70] will get you a bit better driveability in the highway if you have smaller tires. 4.11s will be needed if you are running 35s and you will be able to move along in the right lane on the interstate without being completely run over. I think you will be happier offroad with 4.11s and the discs and fine spline birfs will also be nice. If you stick with coarse birfields, let us know. Many of us have spares we can donate.

No worries man, I wasn't that put out by it. You are right though, when talking about altering classics it can bring up some pretty strong opinions. It does have 35's on it right now and I think I'll stick in that general size range because I like the looks of it so a taller gear is probably better in the long run. I don't guess I really have an opinion on the fine vs coarse spline as I don't have any experience with it yet. Right now my main focus is getting it on the road so I need to conquer the following initially....

1) Brakes - does anyone have an opinion on the disc conversion kits offered by several different cruiser sites. All 4 corners of wheel cylinders are bad and I'd like to at least go to disc up front. I've read up on the threads I could find about HiLux and Monte Carlo swaps but it seems to me that after the time and effort to get all of that found and than to match up properly that maybe I'm better off just spending the extra money and getting something purpose built for this. Maybe I'm not reading the right things though.

2) Front axle corners - Last time it was driven the driver front wheel came off. The belief was that a company who shall remain nameless had recently done bearings and simply didn't tighten things up. I don't know if that's accurate or not but for my own piece of mind I'll just rebuild both sides anyway.

3) Wiring - the harness is shot and in large part missing. I have an aftermarket harness from painless I believe, so that shouldn't be too bad.

4) I'll probably go thru clutch and cylinder and complete brake system as well including lines.

All of this is well within what I have done many times on other vehicles, I just need a gentle push in the right direction

 

[Pighead]

I don't think you've mentioned if you have power steering or not

 

[Hugh Heifer]

I had 35s with 4.11 gears and a 4 speed in one of my trucks I sold. It did well off road and the gearing allowed me to get to the trails fairly easily. I ran minitruck discs up front which were great and I had saginaw power steering which was another great mod. I put Wilwoods up front on another truck and I liked the Toyota stuff better but you are right that you need to source all the stuff rather than buy a kit. If you could find someome parting a 60 series it would have everything you need. Birfield, knuckles, discs etc. (This is a project I am going to tackle on.my latest 40.)
As far as the Painless wiring goes, I have done plenty of Toyota wiring but have not tried a Painless. I have read on the site it is a challenge.

 

[LandCrusher'70]

3) Wiring - the harness is shot and in large part missing. I have an aftermarket harness from painless I believe, so that shouldn't be too bad.

As far as the Painless wiring goes, I have done plenty of Toyota wiring but have not tried a Painless. I have read on the site it is a challenge.

FWIW:
I helped a buddy of mine, many, many years ago, install a Painless into his 40. It wasn’t too bad. Well labeled I thought. Just time consuming.

My current 40 also has a Painless harness. The PO had sloppy routing and left a LOT of loose ends. I ended up ripping the whole thing out and redoing it to my standards. I soldered joints, and used proper terminals when needed, and did not reuse those clamshell clip things. Again, just time consuming.

 

[Gnoon]

FWIW:
I helped a buddy of mine, many, many years ago, install a Painless into his 40. It wasn’t too bad. Well labeled I thought. Just time consuming.

My current 40 also has a Painless harness. The PO had sloppy routing and left a LOT of loose ends. I ended up ripping the whole thing out and redoing it to my standards. I soldered joints, and used proper terminals when needed, and did not reuse those clamshell clip things. Again, just time consuming.

Ya, I rewired a mid 80's Dodge truck before and it was a major pain. This should be a lot simpler but still time consuming to do right.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

FWIW:
I helped a buddy of mine, many, many years ago, install a Painless into his 40. It wasn’t too bad. Well labeled I thought. Just time consuming.

My current 40 also has a Painless harness. The PO had sloppy routing and left a LOT of loose ends. I ended up ripping the whole thing out and redoing it to my standards. I soldered joints, and used proper terminals when needed, and did not reuse those clamshell clip things. Again, just time consuming.

With stock switches or after market? My current 40 wiring is a mess from hot AZ air

 

[Gnoon]

With stock switches or after market? My current 40 wiring is a mess from hot AZ air

Unfortunately most of the stock switches are gone. What I will probably do is get temp switches to get it going and put it back to stock as I find replacement stock switches.

 

[LandCrusher'70]

With stock switches or after market? My current 40 wiring is a mess from hot AZ air

All of the stock switches are working.

However, I added a push button start, and fuel pump + coil cutoff switches. I did this not because the stock arrangement wouldn’t work, but to deter any would be thieves.

I also added relays for the fuel pump, coil, starter and headlights (one for high beam, one for low), and ran grounds to everything.

 

[LandCrusher'70]

Unfortunately most of the stock switches are gone. What I will probably do is get temp switches to get it going and put it back to stock as I find replacement stock switches.

That’ll work. You will have to get creative with the brake / turn / hazard circuit however, and follow the stock schematics when you get stock switches.

 

[fjwagon]

Coolerman has a great site if need oem style terminals and connector shells. As far as axles are concerned, I'm biased, I prefer newer fj40, fj55(79) and fj60 axles. I also like the fj62 since they are fine splin and run 4.11's. If you running 35's, I would not do 3.70's unless you do a lot of highway driving. Just my opinion. Try to get them complete if you go that route. It gets expansive real quickly and at times you may be at a stoppage since stuff is hard to locate.

 

[Gnoon]

All of the stock switches are working.

However, I added a push button start, and fuel pump + coil cutoff switches. I did this not because the stock arrangement wouldn’t work, but to deter any would be thieves.

I also added relays for the fuel pump, coil, starter and headlights (one for high beam, one for low), and ran grounds to everything.

Ya, I'm actually an electrician so I will go over and above with some of that stuff as well. The fuel pump and coil cutoffs are good ideas. I'll probably add those as well.

 

[LandCrusher'70]

Ya, I'm actually an electrician so I will go over and above with some of that stuff as well. The fuel pump and coil cutoffs are good ideas. I'll probably add those as well.

Perfect!

 

[jim land]

Cruiseroutfitters use to sell 60 knuckle swap
With 35" , better get some chromo axle and birfs