6o series axle swap question

[Scott Parsley]

After all these years I'm finally starting to put together a serious plan for my LV. I'd like to swap the front axle with a FJ62 axle I have had for quite some time now. My question is concerning the rear axle width after widening the front. I obviously don't have much room to spare if I plan to keep the wheels under the wheel wells. So this may be a stupid question but what would be the result of leaving the rear axle the stock length while having a 3" wider front axle. would it even be noticeable or would it look ridiculous? Could it cause handling issues? I know that I can always resort to running wheel spacers in the back but I would rather not have to do that.

Buying a 40 series front housing and short shaft then swapping all the parts from the 62 axle to that would be perfect except that cost more money and I already need to get steering arms, tre's and tierod/draglink no matter what.

The other option I have would be to "steal" the front axle from under my 40 and put it under the LV. The problem with that is I'm not even close to being able to fabricate front ends on two Land Cruisers at once. Leaving the 40 raped of a front axle until I'm "done" with the wagon is not an option.

Anyone have any advice for me here?

 

[fogblanket]

So many options i run a fj62 rear axle and anfj40 front with a sky widening kit so theaxles are the same width then to get the wheels under the wheel wells i run 8" wide wheels with 5.25@ back spacing i had my wheels made by stockton wheel but if need to go cheap the fj80 wheels are back spaced the same

If it were me j would rebuild the 40 front axle with the fj62 knuckles and steering setup even go fj52 ps box if you have it. To use a stock fj52 front axle you will have to outboard it on the frame

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

WAY harder to run the 62 axle on the front than you think. graft the knuckles out on it and call it good. your stating you might have issues even rebuilding the knuckles so i'm fairly certain you would not want to learn how to outboard your springs to clear the diff on the pass side front.
and by the way you'd be buying the 40 series LONG shaft not the short.. short fj60 and short fj40 are same same.. long fj60 and long mintruck same same.
simple to find a non-ball and claw front axle housing that's been stripped and use it to put disk brakes on it. Why would you want to save $150 in knuckle bearings and seals? Any front end will need servicing anyway.

My advice buy a stripped bare fj40 housing, and a long side inner shaft, a knuckle rebuild kit, new rotors and go to town. order 2 marlin inner axle seals and a diff gasket and your pretty much done ..
$100-150 for knuckle kit, $20 for marlin seals, $10 for diff gasket. Use the FJ62 diff as the splines and ratio should match your early stuff. 4.11

 

[Scott Parsley]

No problem with outboarding the front. That's part of the plan and I'm excited about doing it. Really curious about the front being wider than the rear though and how this will look and handle.

Fogblanket- Do your front tires hit the springs with so much backspacing? Mine could end up even closer to the springs with the plan of outboarding them. Do you have a pic of how your rear tires fit in the wheelwells?

 

[Scott Parsley]

WAY harder to run the 62 axle on the front than you think. graft the knuckles out on it and call it good. your stating you might have issues even rebuilding the knuckles so i'm fairly certain you would not want to learn how to outboard your springs to clear the diff on the pass side front.
and by the way you'd be buying the 40 series LONG shaft not the short.. short fj60 and short fj40 are same same.. long fj60 and long mintruck same same.
simple to find a non-ball and claw front axle housing that's been stripped and use it to put disk brakes on it. Why would you want to save $150 in knuckle bearings and seals? Any front end will need servicing anyway.

My advice buy a stripped bare fj40 housing, and a long side inner shaft, a knuckle rebuild kit, new rotors and go to town. order 2 marlin inner axle seals and a diff gasket and your pretty much done ..
$100-150 for knuckle kit, $20 for marlin seals, $10 for diff gasket. Use the FJ62 diff as the splines and ratio should match your early stuff. 4.11

Not trying to save money on the front end rebuild stuff. No problem doing the work either. I would never replace the front axle and do a bunch of fab work and then leave the axle unserviced. What I am trying to save money on is purchasing a 40 series housing and (you are correct) a long side axle shaft. If someone wants to trade a 62 housing for a 40 housing, I'll go tear that sucker down right now. That would be magical.

As far as the outboarding of the springs, I'm fairly certain that I have a good understanding of what needs to be done and I'm a competent welder so like I said I'm actually excited to do that if that is the route I take. I admit though that using a 40 series housing would be far, far easier, match the rear and be less time consuming.

 

[Gumby]

This seems to be one of those times where you want to do something you shouldn't because you happen to already have the parts. I've done it many times in the past.

Wait for the right parts or the money to do the right mod. Don't put the 62 axle in.

Just my humble opinion.

I have a 80 axle in the back of my 50 and a 55 axle in the front with spacers. It doesn't look terrible on a wheeling rig. Wider front might look goofier, although it makes good sense for wheeling.

 

[fogblanket]

Fogblanket- Do your front tires hit the springs with so much backspacing? Mine could end up even closer to the springs with the plan of outboarding them. Do you have a pic of how your rear tires fit in the wheelwells?[/QUOTE]

no my tires don't hit the springs because mine are in the stock configuration and not out boarded. I get my extra width up front from the sky widening kit which is not like a spacer. I would not trust a spacer again I had them on the rear when I was running the stock fj45lv axle before I swapped in the fj62 rear axle and it was near impossible to keep them tight and I ended up loosing a wheel .

check out my build thread for pics of how everything fits its the 'Wilma' build up link in my signature line of my posts

 

[Scott Parsley]

no my tires don't hit the springs because mine are in the stock configuration and not out boarded. I get my extra width up front from the sky widening kit which is not like a spacer. I would not trust a spacer again I had them on the rear when I was running the stock fj45lv axle before I swapped in the fj62 rear axle and it was near impossible to keep them tight and I ended up loosing a wheel .

Thanks. I'll have another look at your build thread. I'll also have to search for info about wheel spacers loosening up. That sounds scary. I was probably going to end up with some spacers in the rear to compensate for the width added to the front.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Put a wanted add up for a 40 housing...they're out there, esp. in your neighborhood (bay area? Get a hold of Georg, he's probably got a line on one or two).

I just gave a set away and took the remaining two sets I had to the scrap yard last year.

As far as your original question, I don't think there'd be an issue with the differing widths, other than looking a bit goofy.

Dan

 

[Scott Parsley]

I sold a bare 40 housing I had a while back too. Figured I would NEVER need it again. Man I wish I still had that right now. It would make my choice simple as pie.

Georg has been a major supporter of my LV project over the years so I'm sure he would at least try to help me out if I decide to stay stock width and score a 40 housing.