87 rear axle blues, whats the differences?

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lowliferat

10 Year
Joined
May 13, 2012
Threads
10
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37
Location
under rock in Norfolk va
have an 87 rear with bent axle, picked up some shafts, dont know what year, went to put in and noticed the bearings sit differently in backing plate, mine are recessed in a bit for the flange on the axle to ride in, and new to me ones are flush on backing plate? can i switch bearings ? are the backing plates different? im at a loss as to what is going on
thanks for whatever direction you can point me in
 
lowliferat said:
have an 87 rear with bent axle, picked up some shafts, dont know what year, went to put in and noticed the bearings sit differently in backing plate, mine are recessed in a bit for the flange on the axle to ride in, and new to me ones are flush on backing plate? can i switch bearings ? are the backing plates different? im at a loss as to what is going on
thanks for whatever direction you can point me in
Click to expand...
no one ran into this?
 
lowliferat said:
have an 87 rear with bent axle, picked up some shafts, dont know what year
Click to expand...

The years matter, so that would be the starting point. The '79-85 rear axles were 55”, the '86-95 rear axles were 58.5”, and the ’96 and on (Tacomas) changed again.

So if the shafts you got were ’86 to ’95 shafts, you should be good. If they’re not, they aren’t going to work.
 
i checked with the guy i got them from, he said they were out of an 88, i just welded up a tool for the press to try to swap bearings and see if one is thinner than the other. shafts are the same and backing plates are too, my bearings have a metal shield, and the others are red on their shield. so tomorrow i will pull them out and see. thanks for the help PAToyota
 
heres the pics

my phone pics 2016 160.webp


my phone pics 2016 161.webp
 
@KLF That's what I was about to say. Notice the color difference too. Someone probably replaced a noisy wheel bearing and didn't seat it fully. Isn't width the only difference between leaf sprung, 8", mini truck rear ends? Besides gearing and larger brakes for the wider models.
 
KLF was exactly right, all that for the bearing not seated , so my original reason for changing axle was i thiught it was bent, my wheel came off at 75 driver rear and i slide down interstate to exit and went back got wheel, robbed other lug nuts and limped home with no drum, shattered, so i replaced all and now vibration at 55, replaced bearings, drum, and shaft on driver, still have vibration, changed rims and tires , wallowed out alum rim, went to steel and different tires , any guesses?
 
x2 on the bent housing
 
Does your axle shaft splines engage easily? Both sides? If so, I doubt the housing is bent.
 
not bent housing, whole rear was shaking bad, checked front end after i was asked if i was sureit was from rear twice by old timer mechanic, it was the front pass. bottom ball joint, lots of movement. original ball joints on 87 with over 350,000 miles so i think i got my moneys worth out of them, ive had her 14 years. so ball joints are in my future this weekend hopefully. thank you for your help and advice on where to check
 
lowliferat said:
So ball joints are in my future this weekend hopefully. thank you for your help and advice on where to check
Click to expand...

Suggestion. Don't be cheap. Go OEM.
 
back again, ball joints and outer tie rod end helped some, put up on jack stands and ran her in gear, had a bent rim, swapped that set with ones off my runner, still there, dropped rear shaft and joints were stiff, replaced those .
vibrations still there, so took shaft off again and its at driveline shop, been running to work in 4wd, 40 miles a day
vibe was gone until 60, so happy to be able to do 60 instead of 45.
on way home yesterday vibes got bad, so i pulled over to check lugs, still tight
rear feels like on jello, something wrong , will check tomorrow hopefully
shaft still at shop, something about splines?
 
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