05+ Chromoly rear axles?

Does anyone know of a source for 05+ 'moly rear axle shafts? Or anything stronger than stock? I stripped the splines on a stock one this weekend when I broke a planetary gear in the third.

 

YOUCH! I haven't seen any yet personally.

nor have I seen anyone strip one of these axles lol

 

With big ass tires like that on the stock axle, i could see it. You say you blew up 3rd in the transmission? what happen instant lockup of the driveline that caused them to strip.

 

No, the 3rd member, aka rear differential. The side gear broke, just like max. (his pics) http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/246760-2nd-gen-rear-axle-bearing-diy.html




It causes the end of the passenger side axle shaft to look like this-




I have 40,000+ really hard miles on this rear end with 37's. That is more than I got out of the stock rear. I think this happens when the elocker kind of hangs up and doesn't fully engage. The shift fork is really hard to slide from lock to unlock, leading me to believe the locker splines are fubar from too many donuts on pavement and other abusive shenanigans. The Ring and Pinion look new.

 

Upgrade axles or keep replacing shafts. Better to replace shafts than to blow 3rds constantly.

 

It sucks even worse to blow 3rds AND shafts. I ended up just getting a used factory shaft from the junkyard (it comes with the backing plate and wheel bearing already attached) and ordering a new 3rd from ECGS. I need to shitcan the toyota stuff entirely and stick a 9" under there, or even a Dana 60.

 

A properly built 9" with 35 or 40 spline shafts would be more than you'll ever need in a Tacoma and you'll have better ground clearance than a 60.

 

Yes, but a properly built 9" would cost around 5 grand. I can get a 60 or 14 bolt at the junkyard for a few hundo. The age old question, "how fast can you afford to go?".

Edit: Actually costs more than 5 grand. http://camburg.com/rear-end-builder/

 

You could always look for a 9" out of a early 70's Torino and some Rancheros. They have the heavy duty housings and thicker tubes. Avoid ones with the 28 spline and find one with the 31 spline and you'd still have a solid axle, much stronger than stock. The only issue with going junkyard is having custom width shafts, unless you find a housing that's close enough to the stock tacoma housing. I'm not sure what the width of the stock tacoma housing is to compare. Biggest issue is correcting for bolt pattern.

I swapped one out of a Torino into a Jeep YJ. It was about an inch shorter than the stock D35 (Torino 9" comes in two widths, one is about 59" and the other is 61" if memory serves) so I adjusted with spacers to even things out. I kept the stock shafts and put a detroit locker in it and beat on it pretty hard with 36" swampers and only broke one axle and that was my fault.

Just throwing out ideas in case you're considering an axle swap.

 

Stock 05+ tacoma rear axle width is 66" WMS to WMS. Ideal width for my truck would be 68". Hard to find anything in the junkyard that width in a nine inch. Not a lot of affordable options no matter how you slice it.

 

You can try some custom chromo shafts from Currie.. they will make you anything you want as long as you have a high enough credit rating lmao

 

A quick search shows 1972 3/4 ton Ford vans having a 9" at 68" width. Might take a little luck finding one but most people looking for a 9" want something narrower than 68"

 

Yahp. Eh, I can grenade the stock toyota stuff like 5 more times and still be ahead $.

Hmm...might take a while to find one but I bet they are out there.

 

Currie or any other axle builder can build you an 9" for less than $5k. Once you go full floater/fully fabricated housing/big bearing 9+ is when the price really shoots up. Camburg/BMS/Sandy Cone hubs and high end Wilwood or ProAm calipers/rotors also jack up the price and aren't really needed.

A 31 spline/non full floater 9" without all the bells and whistles would probably work and be in the budget.

 

I wanted to ask your opinion as you've been down this road before. Didn't you have issues with the brake proportioning? Did you have a locker in yours and if so what kind? Any other pro tips?

 

Definitely not a pro. Haha. I was a scrub that took months to get it all to work.

If you go full floater you will loose the ability to use your stock brakes. Currie suggested this to me to save me the headache.

You will need a proportioning valve and a small disc brake caliper if you go to disc brakes in the rear. The stock system doesn't have the pressure to run large rear calipers. If you ditch the stock brake booster you start at square one. I would keep it if I were you.

I ran a full Detroit Locker in mine and loved it even with the tires chirping.

I will try and dig up the correct size brake caliper I used to get it right.

 

It would be cool to just keep the stock brakes. I know they are antiquated, but they sure do work well. I didn't know that was an option. I also kind of like having an E-brake, as my clapped out motor doesn't have enough compression to hold the truck on hills. (maybe even a new one doesn't, never tried it). How would the bearings work with stock brakes? I would like to be able to change an axle shaft on the trail without a press. I know this is a pipe dream with a semi-floater, but it is a dream none the less. Thanks for the help man

 

Interesting...

 

Would be a nice Xmas present to myself this year