I did a search and didnt see anything about swapping in a Toyota PU front end so i will ask the question. Is there anything vitally important i know before trying to do this? I havent goten to go check the FE out so i am not really sure if diff output flange is different. If this is so i am sure i can work around that. What about tie rods? Theoretically my (pitman arm?) arm from powersteering pump will fit the rods from PU? I can see this could be some work but here is my reasoning for doing it. Cheap disc brake from end same gearing w\ locker fresh installed for cheap. As i see it if i am just doing FDB with all parts rebuild stuff and work i will end up paying as much as for a complete FU with locker. Any one done this? Any problems to expect?
Ben

Well besides being a smaller ring gear (I believe) the only things I can thing of are

Width - How wide is that axle?
Brakes - Different lines
Pinion yoke - Different bolt pattern (But should be able to drill it out pretty easy

the birfs are the same.....
the axles are a different length
overall difference in width is small.... 1 or 2 inches
the flange is different...easy fix
the ring gear is definitely smaller
9.25 cruiser vs 8.5 minitruck
the j-arm needs to have the top of the 'j'cut off and it should be all sweet oh yeah, you can get HP diffs for them, and brake lines have male to male fittings whereas cruisers are female to male fittings on the brake lines, so they should just plug in...but the hilux/minitruck has 2 brake lines and the cruiser has one and steel pipe runs across the diff, you'd probably need to fab yours onto it (brake lines are same fittings as later FJ40s, 1975 on i think)

you can always putbs on it to gain some width.....what engine are you gunna make push this beast?

Your biggest problem is going to be spring pad spacing. The Cruiser is about 27" where the mini truck is about 29". You are going to have to do some fabbing to make it fit.

Eric is right, the biggest problem is the difference in distances between the centers of the spring perches.

To get it centered in the vehicle you will have to either move your spring hangers and shackle hangers further apart or do some serious digging into the top passenger side of the toy differential.

As for going to a smaller ring gear...it doesn't really matter cause the cruiser pinion (fine spline) and the toy pinion have IDENTICAL splines. I know this cause I used a toy pickup flange on a cruiser third member.

As for width, I think a drum brake cruiser is 55.1" Wide whereas my 74 frontend with pickup disk brakes is 56.5". I think a stock toy PU frontend is 56".

Good luck.

PS You may be interested in the fact that alot of the toy pickup owners swap in dana 44s even though they only have 4 cylinders and weight about 3500 lbs. Your cruiser will have have alot more power and weight to deal with so keep that in mind.

oowww it hurts.... nothing is simple is it. Well here is the scenario, i have a fj55 with v8,= way more power than PU. all that work is a lot..... See the guy will sell me complete PU FE for 550 w\detroit locker. Or i can buy the disc stuff needed for FDB - spindles for 100. He is the rebuilding everything kinda guy and says he would rebuild the PU knuckels if i just do FDB so that is another 108$. then pads etc will have me up to ~250 OR i could go for complete swap and spend 550 and get spiffy detroit.... Either way i think i will have to turn the knuckles so that means it wouldnt make that much work effort difference to do FDB... maybe i will go for FDB ignore rebuild for now and just get truck usable.... OR maybe do cheap FDB and buy lockrite for front... what is all of your opinions?
ben

tankota, did you cut and turn knuckles on you front end? If you would you be willing to assist\makeshureidontf***up? O would be willing to compensate monetarily... If you cant tankota can anyone in seattle area? I really dont want to getmyself into somthing that i could screw up and i think i might have chance at screwing this up.
thanks
ben

Swamppig, sorry man, I can't help you out at this time. I've got way too many projects going on at once that all have deadlines, including my owner cruiser.

I haven't previously had to cut and turn my knuckles, however, I'm going to do it next week cause my new SOA is very tall. My previous SOA used blazer springs and was equivalent to a 4" lift. My new waggie springs are probably more like a 7-8" lift.

Cut and turn is pretty simple. I remember a description by someone on here a while ago. It might be in the archives but they lost alot of stuff when they upgraded servers so:confused:

I think dogwalker had a very short and simple description on how to do it. You need a 4" grinder with a cut off wheel, an angle finder, a welder and a big bar for sticking through the knuckle to turn it in the housing. Cut the 1/8" thick cruiser tube so you can see the knuckle material underneath it (DON"T cut into the knuckle material underneath the front end tube), turn it to the desired angle, weld it up.

Good luck.:beer:

thanks anyways, i started it and its going so so. i think i cut a little to far out, i went on edge of weld so i didnt see the area where they go together. Finally see it and heated it all up nice and red and started to try and turn, unfourtunatly my manliness bent my steel turning bar. It was like 1 1\8inch reg steel. I need to use some hardened stuff, i think, originally i didnt heat enough so wouldnt go, thats why it bent i think. I heated it up and bar was worthless by then. Need to find some good stuff and it was getting late so i will try to finish it up though later this weekend though.
ben

all the things you guys mention are doable, but the problem i see is that the mini axle housing is thinner and will probly not hold up well to the weight and power of the pig, now i now the v-8 is lighter that the six, and i also know lots of mini's run v-8's, but why go thinner on an axle tube??? just use the mini for the disc swap. for a cut and turn, this method works good for me.
grind lightly the weld just to smooth it with the housing, then get a 3" pipe cutter and cut through just the housing just inside the weld, you can then rotate and re-weld easily. i find this much faster and more accurate than grinding.