Lo rider 40 on 40's (1 Viewer)

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Ok! I think that I may be doing something idiotic here but lets pretend its possible. Im trying to keep my center of gravity so low that I can no longer use the hi pinion axle in my fj80 housing due to it hitting the bell housing on the 350/nv4500.

THE BIG QUESTION! Has anyone tried to use a TRD. low pinion e locker in the front of a fj80 housing. YEs I am aware of the housing mods it takes to put one of these diffs in a rear housing but before I cut up my 80 housing that I have just linked up I thought I would try this forum.

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That thing is outta control!!

:)
 
I have never heard of it being done. I cannot think of a reason why it would not work though. However if your running big tires and a v8 I would probably use a fj60 axle for the 9.5" differential and widen it using the 4 plus products housing inserts on both sides and then use the 80 series bells and birfields. If you are set on the 8" diff I would recommend resisting the urge to go to a low geared ring and pinion, your going to want all the tooth contact you can muster. BTW your bezel is upside down.
 
I think it would not work as the 80 housing is based on an 8 inch ring gear. The locker being a rear low pinion is probably based on a larger ring gear. But that's just my guess
 
Up travel with the air bums is 3 inches, down is 11. Its 4" lower than when I had 35's and a 4 inch leafs on it. Am planing to stay stock with the diff gears for now being that I have the granny gear. I could get the 80 high pinion to work but I just scored that e locker for $200!!!!!:banana::beer::clap:


Appreciate the help BTW.
 
There's a customer in PHX using the same axle setup described by @White Stripe . It's a really stable setup. With that low center his
sidehill abilities are pretty crazy. Reminds me of Steve Rumore's Sniper when we ran Arca with him. I'm pretty sure Sniper would sidehill
past 45 degrees
 
Great build, been lurking on it over at pirate. Do you have your old rear 40 axle? You could cut the tubes at the drums, then build it into a front axle with the 80 bells, knuckles and birfs. Then as white stripe recommended you could have the stronger 9.5” diff.

Really looking forward to watching this build. Keep it up!
 
How many inches of uptravel will be gained by going low pinion vs. the money spent out of pocket? That is the question. Is building a multi thousand dollar complete custom front axle worth a few inches, just because you saved a couple hundred bucks on a 3rd that doesn't fit without a big shoehorn?
 
GW Nugget The up travel is what it is. I am missing that one pic that would let you see what I did with the frame without cutting off the front of the frame and going full hydro steering there can be no more. Air bump is bottoming out 1/4" below the bottom of the frame. I have money to spend I just don't want to cuz Im cheep!!! LOL. I also have mini truck 3rd as well.....


Pre air bumps, gussets and clean up. Also motor is as far up as I can go.

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How many inches of uptravel will be gained by going low pinion vs. the money spent out of pocket? That is the question. Is building a multi thousand dollar complete custom front axle worth a few inches, just because you saved a couple hundred bucks on a 3rd that doesn't fit without a big shoehorn?

In a 40 there's not much gain in a high pinion. I found it was a more a problem. The position of the diff in relation to the oil pan meant restricting up travel. If you redesigned the frame around a high pinion you could in theory make gains in overall travel as the droop would increase without
maxing out the u-joint angles. You'd need the diff to travel up alongside the engine versus right into it's guts.
 
There is no reason a Tacoma low pinion third member won't fit in the housing, but the steering will get in the way if you have it in the factory 80 location. (behind the axle)

My buddy has a low pinion E-locker in his mini truck front axle, simply because it was available at the time. The mods to the housing are identical between a hi pinion and low pinion 8" locker.
 
One thing to consider with the low pinion front is that going forward, the front axle doesn't take the planted load of the direction of travel. It's stronger for backing out of tough situations just as the rear is while traveling forward.

If you have a full time tcase high pinion makes sense. With part time I would argue otherwise.

When I finally build my Ford 9" hybrid front (now likely with D60 knuckles) it will be low pinion for the reasons stated above.
 
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