thats what i plan on. anyone know the pros/cons?? other than birfeilds? seems like an easy yet strong swap.

If ya run mini truck knuckles there cool, if not who knows.

they are a little heavier than a mini axle

as Fatkid says you need to run mini knuckles- out anyways.. ( proper stud spacing for crossover steering arms , the smaller 'cruiser pattern 'aint makin it.......)

rear brakes ( stock drums need to be manually adjusted, which is a PITA...)

as far as being stronger...... R+ P.... maybe....in front everything else is the same ........ in the rear the baseball bat sized axles you are not likely to have a problem with...... if the c-clips don't take a dump on ya....

you also need to run a larger master cylinder if you are running the stock rear drums.... the factory Sami unit does not push enough fluid to make them work

oh yeah the coarse spline pinions make suzi pinions look beefy..

I am putting Crusier axles in mine along with the Shaffer coil kit. When you gear them down the pinion has the fine splines and if you convert to rear discs they will "assist" the C-clips in retaining the axles. In the front I got the FJ60 knuckles which will give me vented rotors and the larger kingpin for the high-steer. There is a super birfield out there now that should make it indestructable, especally in a samurai. The only advantage with the crusier axle is the off-set diff but the mini centered diff isnt a big deal, the trade off is the extra weight and bigger diff. Unless you find a deal on a pair of cruiser axles, I would go with the mini axles. I got mine cheap from some punk looking for beer money a couple years ago:rasta:

I maybe talking out of my ass here but here we go...

You dont need the mini knuckles unless you pick up a drum front end. I think the knuckles are the same on minis as they are disc brake. Cruiser's are 30 spline inner/outer fronts on the later models (disc brake) and 10 spline outer with 30 spline inner on early (drum). The R+P are 9.25 inches with pinion coming in with a course and fine spline. The front and rear 3rds are the same. Rear axle has the same diameter as as dana60 1.5 or 1.6 inches I believe. also a 30 spline axle and c clip as stated earlier.

The weak points on the axle are of course the birfs, and if you get an early axle wiht the 10 spline the snap like twigs. It is also rumored that pinons are weak. Fine spline being much stronger though. I have course spline pinions ft/rr of mine and have never broken one in 5+ yrs. I run 350/465/3spd case and 35x16 boggers.

I think Shrock is running an FJ front axle with E locker. I'm sure he'll pipe in anyay.

thanks, looking like a mini swap instead.

I'm running the FJ-80 high pinon diff and e-locker front, but the front axle itself is mini truck. Tacoma rear (offset 3"). The Taco axle is 3" wider than a mini, so you can cut down the pass side 3" and have the same width F&R.

Jim

Shrock the rear is cut 3 1/2" and it is 61" to start with. I think that the front Toyota is 56" and now your back is about 57 1/2"

Hey mas who chopped your rear axle and do you have spares?

Does anyone know what gear ratios come stock in the cruiser axles?? I just looked at a set today for CHEAP!!!!!
I am going back on thursday to check the gears to see if they are broken, so I'll find out then anyway....I'm just impatient!!!

FJ40=4.10
FJ60=3.70
aftermarket= up to 4.88 (maybe 5.29, not sure, I got 4.56)

I ran a mini truck front and a Landcruiser rear for about 2 years.
I never had any trouble except for Birfields (broke 7 last year)
The only bad thing about the cruiser axle is the 14-bolt size of it and you can't gear them as low as the mini truck axle.
I also ran a 1999 Chevy Tracker brake booster, MC, etc and had plenty of braking power.

We ran with a guy at the melt this weekend that had land cruiser axles with as he called it heavy duty birfs and 5:13 gears with a stock t-case and a grs2 behind that stock 1.3 with a 2barrel conversion done to the carb on 38 swampers and it rocked basically unstoppable if I didnt all ready have a set of mini's I might look to go that way.

after doing a lot of measuring before deciding on the d 44 front. one advantage to the cruiser housing is that the front spring track can be narrowed down to about 25 and a half inches , enouraging more flex. I had to do a lot more machining to accomidate my d 44 on the same suspension set up

Is there anyone with a zuk running the late model FJ-80 Land Crusher axles? From the luxo-utes of the 90s.

What is the diameter of the rear shafts on them? And how much do the assemblies weigh?

Edit: FYI, the width on these beasts is 63" between Wheel Mounting Surfaces (WMS)

The front diff is a version of the Toyota 8", and the rear has a 9.25" ring gear. Front birfields on these are Huge compared to Toy mini truck or FJ-40 series.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN MAN?

Are you getting back into the game or what?
We thought you joined the French Foriegn Legion or something.

Huh? me? No French Legion for me, just the U.S. Army Infantry.

I've kind of still got the zuk up for sale. But noone seems to be biting, so I might just have to finish it up and flog it a bit. A new local connection with a fully loaded garage is making that option more viable.

I was talking to to rockzooki.
He dropped off the radar last summer, and has been MIA since.

good deal, didn't think I knew you, but anything was possible.

So, back to the question, anyone running the FJ-80 stuff?

Originally posted by Shrock
I'm running the FJ-80 high pinon diff and e-locker front, but the front axle itself is mini truck. Tacoma rear (offset 3"). The Taco axle is 3" wider than a mini, so you can cut down the pass side 3" and have the same width F&R.

Jim
OK if you cut down one side of the rear axle by 3" then that means it would be off-set by 1-1/2" with aprox. another 1" offset being gained from a standard Toyota MT third member in a rear application;)

The FJ -80 rear is somewhat off-set to the pass. side from the factory. I just took a brief look at it and it didn't look too drastic, but it's certianly not centered.

I won't be cutting anythign down, if I use these they are going in full 63" width, with about a 4" backspaced rim.

Originally posted by SilverZuk
I was talking to to rockzooki.
He dropped off the radar last summer, and has been MIA since.

And he must still be MIA, cause if you didnt notice, his post was from 7/2002 :rolleyes: :flipoff2:

Chris's question(after searching it looks like :D) is the reason its back up top

As for where he is, this might be a clue Link (http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70966)

Originally posted by DougO


And he must still be MIA, cause if you didnt notice, his post was from 7/2002 :rolleyes: :flipoff2:

Chris's question(after searching it looks like :D) is the reason its back up top

As for where he is, this might be a clue Link (http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70966)




nope, hes not there either, that forum was died out a couple of months ago only 4 or 5 ppl ever posted on it (i was on of em!):flipoff2: :flipoff2:

Originally posted by SilverZuk
I was talking to to rockzooki.
He dropped off the radar last summer, and has been MIA since.

hey, marv still dont have a computer anymore, hes wheelin a fullsize bronco now. hes sellin it though i think, said he might get either another zuki or a YJ

Minitruck axles are 55" wide from 79-85. (Solid front axle)
The rear off of the 86-95 IFS minitrucks is 58" wide.

If you have any FJ-80 Questions, talk to bjowett here on PBB... he did an SAS on his mini-truck with an FJ80 front axle. Searching the Toy forum for FJ-80 may result in a surprising amount of info. I've seen one or two good threads on the subject.

The main reason I think they're not as popular is that they're harder to get cheap. How many people wheel late-model land cruisers and upgrade to 1-ton gear... and anyone who works at a junkyard will pro-rate the parts in relation to what kind of/how expensive/how new the donor vehicle is. Bad news for parts scroungers. :)

I've searched throught he whole PBB for info on them, and found some pretty good stuff, like a couple side by side shots of the Birfs, and the 63" width, as well as some info on their unique steering setup that mounts from under the knuckle and places the tie rod behind the axle, hence the real need for the high pinion, and the drag link attaches out front.

I've yet to see anything on weights which would come in handy in determining whether they are too heavy for a zuk.
As well I am still confused as to the size of the rear axle shafts. It seems to me that they are the same diameter as Mini-truck shafts and just ring gear is bigger. But I haven't been able to verify this one way or the other.

If that's the case then I am tempted to use the FJ-80 front in the zuk, and use an IFS rear with spacers out back, that way I can run Toy 8" E-lockers in both of them. The only way I could justify using the rear is if the shafts size increases comparitively with the gears.