Topic: Taco rear in a first gen

[-Jake-]

I bought a rear out of a 01 Taco with an e-locker.  I know its about 2" wider than my IFS rear I currently have in there, and I'll have to move the e-brake mount.  My question is are these equally as strong as an IFS rear?  I just don't want to mess with cutting my old one and drilling and tapping holes and this seems like swapping in the Taco one would be WAY easier.  I guess I'll have to do a flex test and see if my rear tires will still clear with another 1" of width.  Whats everyone think?

[TacoRunner]

They're fine, no problem. Here is some good info from the 4skinner project you may want to read. Im not sure this corresponse to you, because Im not up on the whole Taco and E-locker thing but it may help.

Now onto the other news... I spent a few days figuring out the problem a lot of people are having with breaking elocker side gears. I have heard of this happening about 10 times, all on minor climbs and sometimes in 2wd. Heres some background
http://pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=806250
http://gearinstalls.com/elockerbroken.htm

The elocker rear 3rds when retrofitted into an early pickup or 4runner leaf sprung housing are lacking between 7 and 8mm of spline engagment into the side gears of the diff, due to a narrower center inside of the diff(apparently to accomodate the elocker mechanism). Most people running this combination are not having problems, But a few have broken side gears. The real probem exists when you are using a coil sprung 4runner housing as these are 7mm wider on each side(axle and housing), 14mm total, and then use an aftermarket axle shaft designed for a leaf sprung ifs width housing(all aftermarket axles I have seen are designed for leaf sprung ifs housings). You are lacking 14-15mm of engagment on each side, all of the force is transferred to the weakest part of the side gear and BANG! The good news is, since the coil sprung axle shafts are 7mm's longer to accomodate the 7mm wider housing, we have a near perfect solution.
SO:

Leaf sprung ifs housing, retrofitted elocker = weak link

Coil sprung housing, coil sprung shafts = weak link

Coil sprung housing with leaf sprung shafts = BANG!
BUT
leaf sprung housing with coil sprung shafts = full spline egagment within 1mm and one less thing to worry about.

I did all measurments on a TG elocker housing, which you'd think they would have designed to correct this problem(since they sell shafts for it and all). I used 86 backing plates with 93 shafts and some new bearings and seals from marlin pressed on with a home made tool to verify the engagment.
With the third out of the housing and both 86 shafts installed, the gap between the axles measured 42.79mm. With the coil sprung 93 shafts the same measurement was 28.84mm. Save yourself a massive headache and swap axle shafts when retrofitting an elocker to an early housing. Its a paint in the a hole, but its not that much more work if you need new bearings anways and build one of these http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/maintenance/rear_axle/wheel_bearing/

[-Jake- [OP]]

good read but holy smokes got confusing...  I read it like if you modify your rear leaf sprung IFS housing the right side axle shaft is fine but the left you might want to replace with one out of a 2nd gen coil sprung 4runner.  I think I'll bolt in my taco rear and call it a day...

[TacoRunner]

Ya its a lot to dieguest all at once, the bottom line is, if you use your stock axle shafts that came with that axle, you wont have any problems  with side gears breaking, if you upgrade to choromoly, you better take a physical measurement of the axle shafts before you put them in. I dont think it was saying anything about left or right side, since both are the same length. But I didn't go throught that with fine toothed comb, so I could be wrong.

[-Jake- [OP]]

I read the pirate4x4 link thats the one that was crazy.  I think I'll use the Taco rear unless it is going to cause clearance issues with the back tires to the wheel wells.  I just don't want to richard with modding my old and really rusty 87 4 cyl housing but I will if I must.  One thing that does suck is my Taco housing didn't have brake lines so I get to bend some of those up 

[TacoRunner]

My Diamond is 60" same as a Taco, I 15"x8" wheels with a3.5" BS on 37"x12.50" MTR's. They JUST sneak by the inner fender on the rear.

[-Jake- [OP]]

I've pretty much made up my mind that bending up some brake lines will be easier than modding my IFS housing to accept an e-locker.  I'll take some pictures when I start tearing into it.  I also hope to make a good tech thread on making your own e-locker harness *hopefully* every thread I've seen is pretty vague.  I'm running 37x12.50s as well not sure on the BS though...

[TacoRunner]

Cool, post it up when you do.