toyota 8"???

im thinking of axle swaps and im leaning towards the 8.8 but i was just wondering how strong the toyota axle is, and if i should look into swaping one of those in befor the 8.8

The 8" is a very good axle with a very large part following. hard to beat, and no c-clips

Do a search for toyota posts started by Fergie. There were a bunch of discussions late last year and early this year.

I do feel the are a good swap, but not the most straight foward.

they are stout axles. The only problem is that pretty much the only yota axles that have the 5x4.5 bolt pattern are the weak 27 spline axles with 7.5" ring gear. But the stronger standard yotas have 6x5.5, nothing a wheel spacer can't fix. The yota axles are lighter, provide more ground clearance and can be found stock with lower gears. Having an 8.8 i wish i would have gotten the toyota axle, the 8.8 carrier sux, clearance sux, diff cover sucks, c-clips suck, etc. Besides removable 3rd member = hotness.

they are plenty of strength for 35s, maybe even 37s, and have the ground clearance of a D35. tons of aftermarket too.

however, the older ones (55" and 58.5") are too narrow to use under an XJ without inboarding the leafs. find a 60" wide one from a later 4runner or Tacoma and you're set. Reflare the brakelines to metric, call High Angle Drivelines for a 1310 u-joint flange, move shock mounts and spring perches as needed, and you're set.

the only major advantage the 8.8 has is that they are 5on4.5 bolt pattern for those that want to keep the D30. I believe you can get a Toy 8" with 5on4.5, but I have not personally seen it.

BrettM said:

the only major advantage the 8.8 has is that they are 5on4.5 bolt pattern for those that want to keep the D30. I believe you can get a Toy 8" with 5on4.5, but I have not personally seen it.

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the later tacomas (95.5) are wide enough and have the 5x4.5. Also there are some super rare toy 8's from older trucks with this pattern but were only in 2WD models.

Puma297 said:

the later tacomas (95.5) are wide enough and have the 5x4.5. Also there are some super rare toy 8's from older trucks with this pattern but were only in 2WD models.

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be careful of older 2wd models, the Toy 7.5" diff looks very similar to the 8". most Tacomas are 6 lug, do you mean 2wd Tacomas?

Puma297 said:

they are stout axles. The only problem is that pretty much the only yota axles that have the 5x4.5 bolt pattern are the weak 27 spline axles with 7.5" ring gear. But the stronger standard yotas have 6x5.5, nothing a wheel spacer can't fix. The yota axles are lighter, provide more ground clearance and can be found stock with lower gears.

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you are only partially correct on the spline count. the 4 banger yotas came with the 27 spline, but the v6 had 30 spline, 8" ring gear, and the 5x4.5 pattern. i just did this swap a month ago.

an 8.4/8.25 toy axle from a 2wd, v6, non-trd, '95 and up tacoma, will be roughly 60.75" wms with 30 spline, 5x4.5, and 10" or 11" drums. i haven't measured them yet.

the braking with the toy axle feels better than stock. i'm on 31" bfg mts btw. it has more clearence than a 44 or 8.8, and i would dare to say is just as strong. there isn't a whole lot of aftermarket parts yet. you can get a powertrax locker, a detroit, and a arb. there aren't any aftermarket shafts, so you would need to replace with stockers. i thought i read somewhere here that the shafts are the same as a 44, but someone else would have to verify that. it is definitely something i need to look into. the install kits and gears cost slightly more than for the 44 also. i don't know about the cost for the 8.8.

if you do the swap, be sure you know exactly what model of tacoma you are getting it from. i have a parts manual for the tacomas, and if you need to replace parts, from the dealer or just about anyone else, you will need to know exactly what model to get the correct parts.

there was a write-up about axles, i think by Crash, that will explain the limitations of different axles. also, as mentioned above, Fergie has many posts about toy axles, as did i the past couple of months.

ok...did some more looking. hopefully these posts will be helpful.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=51252&highlight=8.4
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=33123&highlight=8.4
some talk about 8" in here
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=24165&highlight=toy+8.4
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=62852&highlight=toyota+axle

"the 4 banger yotas came with the 27 spline, but the v6 had 30 spline, 8" ring"


actualy on the 8" toyota axle both 4 cyl and v6 3rd members are interchangeable, if one was 27 and one was 30 this would make that impossible. i have a v6 rear axle which i pulled the v6 3rd and put a 4cyl 3rd in that i had previously welded.

a friend of mine has a '91 yota, 2wd, 22re, that he is scraping and he gave me first dibs on anything i wanted, so dose anyone have any idea what axle is in that one? and it has 6 lugs. i dont care about the gears cus im re gearing anyway. and im going to run 35's. and if this one is to narrow i could just run a couple of wheel spacers?

that is an 8". it is too narrow to use without putting the leafs inboard like BrettM mentioned above.

Fuel90 said:

that is an 8". it is too narrow to use without putting the leafs inboard like BrettM mentioned above.

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what do you mean by putting the leafs inboard? and the 8" has 27 splines right

Yiou don't have to move the leaves inboard if you run wheel spacers. Much less work :lecture:

but what is moving the leaves inboard, i dont get it

Brett used one so I'll let him answer fully, but I believe they are saying there isn't enough room for a spring perch on the narrow axles. If those won't fit than the spacers don't do much good.

I used a tocama and didn't have much of a problem. It was a 6 lug so it was converted to disks and redrilled to a 5X4.5 pattern.

I have a 2x4 V-6 axle also. My plan was to pull the axles with the 5x4.5 pattern and put them in the Tacoma e-locker housing I was using. The shafts were different lengths so it wouldn't work. I think the differece was caused by the tacoma style third member vs. the 8" third.

The things I didn't like about the toy axle were:

1. The backing plate for the brakes is behind the wheel bearing. If you want to carry a spare shaft (with stock brakes) you have to deal with a backing plate also.

2. The tocoma style third member doesn't have side adjusters for the back lash. They have A shim on each side on the outside of the bearing. You have to have a stack of those shims in different sizes (or a few thick ones and a friend with a surface grinder) to set them up. Those shims aren't cheap and they run the price of a full install kit up $80-$100.

I think they are worth messing with though.

Fuel90, did your axle have the lever actuated e-brake or a cable running into the backing plate like a stock axle? How did you make it work?

Lincoln

whitch one is the best to get?

I like the tocoma style housing, but then you have to deal with the gear issue. Pick what problems you want to deal with.

I think a Tocoma 2x4 v-6 is probably the easiest swap if your keeping the stock pattern.

One more gripe:

I've found four different variations in the Tacoma housings. Makes finding spares a PITA.

i dont have a problem regearing because i can do all the work from my house, and i can do all the leaf/shock mounts myself, i just want the strongest unit that is about 60 in wide that i can throw some 4.88's and a lockright into.

from what i hear that is the 95.5 and up tocoma 8" (aka the 8.25/8.4), correct?

the only thing that concerns me is the 6 lugs, how can i convert this if i get the 95.5 and up tocoma axle

You can find a 2x4 v-6 housing. It has the large axles, ~60" wide, and 5x4.5 bolt pattern. It does have a little smaller brakes than the 6x5.5 axles but I think they are still better than stock.
Pics of 5x4.5 housing.



Converting the 6x5.5 axles to 5x4.5 is a pain (what I did). Has to be converted to disks. Most of the kits use an early 90's 1/2 ton Chevy rotor that is bored to go over the center index of the axle. Instead of doing that you need to have the center cut down (also has to be flattened some on the back side) and the axle redrilled to a 5x4.5 pattern. Then the rotors can be redrilled also.