Is the second gen Tacoma IFS any stronger than the 1st gen?

I don't beat on my truck hard enough to worry about things breaking, but I'm still curious what people think that see a lot of off road miles. I've just been curious since some say the CVs are the same size, with negligible change in strength, while some claim they're "worlds stronger," perhaps due to improved alloys and/or metallurgy. The 8" diff would logically be more robust than the 7.5", but is it still stronger given the increase in weight from the first gen trucks? Ditto with the rear axle with the apparently larger shafts in the second gens.

I have noticed a few more threads on broken spindles on the second gen forum, however.

I'd be curious to hear any insights on how your IFS has held up compared to the older design.

 

The ball joint design is better.
The CVs can still break.
If you wheel hard, get gusseted spindles.

For the most part, if break a 2nd Gen IFS, it was due to neglect or wheeled it too hard.
1st vs 2nd Gen? I’d say the 2nd is slightly stronger. But you can still break stuff.

 

Never had a first gen. Kinda wish I did. It’s cheaper. More money for mods.

2nd gen stock IFS works up to like 33”. I have warfab tie rod sleeves, gusseted spindles, UCA, etc

Greasable ball joints

Any more than that is not in my budget. There’s more options above that.
-solid axle
-longer travel
-fabbed LCA’s
-RCLT
-portals
-stronger axle metal

another weak point is factory LCA mounting tabs on the frame without reinforcements

Put 35’s on it, lockers, wheeling with low tire pressure
And you start running the risk of breaking stock axles/CV’s and needing to do a trail side repair to limp it back home

I forget the front IFS diff size. It’s a common one. Rarely hard of one breaking.
Depends what kind of wheeling you do

but yeah with most stock trucks and not being some high end model
with a C channel frame
They’re not gonna climb up a wall without issue right out of the box

cheaper the truck more and better mods you can do
Which at this mileage you’d do anyway
provided the truck in question doesn’t have PITA problem areas to deal with
such as early head gaskets
Or 6-speed manuals with the multiple problems they have

New truck usually means paying a shit ton of money for something that is stock and rides on $200 pencil shocks

 

how is that? 4 small bolts vs 2 larger ones. very larger complaints of the mounts breaking on the 1st gen vs 2nd.

 

Are you talking about the ball joints? They’re compression-loaded on the second gen. IMO the tension-loaded design was lazy at best from Toyota. It seemed to be a carry over from the torsion bar IFS without accounting for the A-arms which might eventually force the joint downwards out of the socket.

 

Hm, I wasn’t aware there were problems with the 6-speed manuals. I rarely hear about problems with the earlier 5 speed boxes.

 

I meant the 2 Gen ball joints were better. The 1st gen went through what? 3 different bolts types and grades.

The 2nd gen uses 2 big bolts. I believe they torque over 100 ft/lbs each.

 

Normally, a manual is more reliable. I went into mine thinking that, not knowing the reality of the design.
Early 5-speeds did work, because Toyota designed them like a regular functional 5-speed.

The RA60F 6-speed is different. And they kept doing this with the 3rd gen.
1. It had a ton of revisions, suggesting they could not get it right
2. The TOB was designed wrong
3. They never made a fix for that
4. Rumor has it they also failed to blue loctite reverse collar bolt threads in the factory, making it a matter of time before it backs out and fails
5. Supposedly gear ratios in it change over time, or at least a better 6th in the FJ

Instead of the TOB having a replaceable cheap sleeve like very other vehicle on the road, they decided to make it a part of the bellhousing itself (cast), and not separately replaceable if it ever wears out
Kind of like building an engine with one built in oil filter that can never be removed, and no drain plug

the best solution to the TOB right now is probably piecing together a Tilton HydroTOB kit; they do not make an off the shelf plug and play kit. That's time and money, not even including parts replacement cost of regular clutch components themselves, and usually having to yank the trans out to go in there prematurely to handle this.