edjumacate me on ball and claw

[fogblanket]

before I post on one of the main tech boards I wanted to get y'alls opion on ball and claw axle shafts. i just tore open my saxles in order o rebuild them and upgrade a few things and found that they are truely as old as my truck. the axle has disk brakes so I was hoping that someone had swapped a newer axle under my 64 lv but unfortunately that is not the case.they just put on some sort of disk brake setup.
so my research tell me I cann't put a birfield axle into this axle housing due to the ball and claw haveing a ushing and the birfield having a wider opening for the seal.way to much effort to machine out enough room for a seal. so do i leave as is or do I build up a new front axle. I have a line on a housing and some mini truck knuckles i would just need to source out a fj62 4.11 diff and I could get it together pretty easily. but just want to make sure it is all worth it.
thanks Jason

 

[nuclearlemon]

there is a specialty seal that you can use. can't remember the number. if you pm me next week when i'm home from cali, i can get you the number, or a search should turn it up since i believe i found the number here.

no experience myself with it since i decided to stay ball and claw

 

[zebrabeefj40]

Jason,

If you plan to wheel the rig (assuming the LV here) much past stock runs you probably ought to upgrade the whole axle. Even a '69 and later drum brake 40/55 housing will bolt right in and accept the minitruck knuckles. Or just run the ball and claw stuff and see how far it gets you while you build a new axle. Maybe it will surprise you how tough it really is. If you were closer I'd give you a housing as I have a few that are in the way. But I'm sure someone near you has what you need too.

Nick

 

[rabid]

They work well, and mine lasted a long time, but I agree with nick. I blew both in one shot, pulling another 40 out of a hole, with an open front end on 33's. The truck had plowed for 20 years previous, so it definately had seen some abuse. The birf is stronger (and much easier to replace) and the longfield is even stronger.

 

[nuclearlemon]

They work well, and mine lasted a long time, but I agree with nick. I blew both in one shot, pulling another 40 out of a hole, with an open front end on 33's. The truck had plowed for 20 years previous, so it definately had seen some abuse. The birf is stronger (and much easier to replace) and the longfield is even stronger.

did you actually blow the ball and claw? they're actually pretty strong, it's usually the course spline axle that fails.

 

[fogblanket]

thanks Ige , Rabid and Nick
I think I got a plan... since this is going on the lv and no one is going to let me on any sort of trail in which I could harm Wilma I am leaning toward running the ball and claw axle and just putting the sky widening kit and mini wheel hub on it and then build up a fj40 axle to swap in at a later date. thats the plan today anyway.
I would however like to have the axle finished before this ever hits the roadso maybe it would be smart just to build it now... my problem is i would want these parts as cheap as I could get them in that there is so many more surprises and parts I still need and I am pretty wildly over budget at this point so that might be my biggest influence to just keep it ball and claw for the time being well thats my thoughts today anyway.
thanks again guys I will keep you posted
Jason

 

[JJS]

I would seriously consider upgrading to front discs as soon as you can, though. Those drums are a pain in the a$$.

 

[fogblanket]

sorry thats the thing someone already has upgraded it to disks so it I keep it as is it would already have disks but one thing that worries me a bit is what disk setup it is. I was kind of surprised to see ball in claw in there in that it has disk brakes I assumed it was all just a later model fj40 axle.
jason

 

[JJS]

Does it have a caliper bracket that fits over the knuckle? Ears welded on the knuckle? I think the only way you can do discs on those is Chevy stuff.

 

[nuclearlemon]

i've never tried it, but i don't see why you couldn't just replace the drum knuckles with disc knuckles and go from there.

do you have pics of your disc brake parts?

 

[fogblanket]

those are excellent questions here are some pics of what I have. my plan now is to add my widening kit to this axle jus tot get it on the road and build up the fj40 axle and just swap on the hubdisk widening spacer when I swap the axle in. makes the most sense and gets it on the road alittle quicker. who knows if I get hte axle done before it hits the road it would not be to much to do the swap then.

 

[fogblanket]

I hope everyone like my pajamas as seen in pic 2 above

 

[zebrabeefj40]

The pictures you posted look like the stock stuff from a '76-78 FJ40 with "small bolt pattern" steering arms. I just wonder how "they" managed to get a ball and claw axle shaft to work with a locking hub. Did you find a 10 spline locking hub when you opened it up? An "interesting" combo of parts you've got there!

Nick

 

[fogblanket]

Nick it is all back together but I did snap this pic yesterday I seem to recall doing a quick count on the splines as 6 but I really didn't look real hard in that I could see this wasn't a fine spline birfield I was looking at.

 

[nuclearlemon]

early hub on a late model hub body would get the 10 spline lock outs. does appear to be standard toyota stuff.

you could save money buy buying a drum axle assy, which will be cheaper and swapping everything onto it.

or you could move to colorado and buy my axles

 

[rabid]

sorry for the late reply. Both claw parts broke off one ear. Again, I was open on 33" tsl's, but the truck had been mercilessly plowed by two schools from 1967-1990 or so.

 

[Rustbustr]

there is a specialty seal that you can use. can't remember the number. if you pm me next week when i'm home from cali, i can get you the number, or a search should turn it up since i believe i found the number here.

no experience myself with it since i decided to stay ball and claw

Hi Nuclear Lemon, im digging around for such a seal as you mentioned. ive got a ball and claw housing laying around with a birf axle in it and i want to try and retrofit it somehow. any idea what that seal was or what dimensions the bushing is so i can see if machining out the bushing and installing a seal is feasible? -thanks