Topic: Cracked axle housing

[M1]

So heres the story: I've had my rear axle torn apart for about 2 months now. I damb near broke every tooth off both the ring & pinion gears. The third that was in my truck came out of a 4cyl. I thought I would be ok putting it in my original V6 housing, but it only lasted to the climb out of the granite bowl. After I got home I did some research and found out that the V6 thirds are more rigid and the pinion is about 25% larger, much stronger. So I know where I went wrong there. With my truck down for so long I thought I would sand blast and paint my housing just for fun. But when I was blasting I noticed 2 cracks on each side of the housing both about 3 inches long. They are both on the backside where the inner ubolts are. It almost looks like I tightened the ubolts 2 much. What I need to know is if I should try to weld up the cracks and possibly end up breaking my new ring & pinion if the housing is bent or something like that. Or should I use the IFS 4cyl housing that I have? Is it ok to use a V6 third in a 4cyl housing? From what I know the housings are completely identical. I don't want anything to go wrong because I just spent $1100 on a new R&P, setup kit and ARB. Any advise would be great, I hope to have my truck driving again in a couple of weeks(I'm having withdrawals) Thanks

[89 toy]

the 4cyl housing should work you will have to trim two tabs off inside the housing for the third member to fit. remember the 86-95 housings are  wider by 3 in than the 79-85 not shure of your years.my buddy runs that setup with 36"tsl's with a detroit under his sammy and has had no problems.

[M1 [OP]]

The other housing I have is cracked in the same spot.Is this a problem with using a ubolt flip kit? What the hell!

[WHITE_TRASH]

How did you manage to crack your housing?  Ive broken everything but housings.  one time I took out my ring&pinion, carrier, driveline and cracked the 3rd. but never hurt my housing. (think healthy small block x 39.5 tsl's mixed with smoky burnout.)
I dont think that a u- bolt flip would do it but to fix it you may want to weld the crack then plate the underside with pipe just to be safe.  Good luck
WT

[M1 [OP]]

I guess I'm hard on my poor 4runner. I probably will weld and plate it. Thanks for the suggestion. Is there an way I can check to see if my housing is bent at all?

[M1 [OP]]

Just finished welding the cracks and plating my housing, turned out pretty good. I will try to get some pictures of it.