difference with 79 to 81 sa to a 1982 - 85 solid axle Whats different?

[tgmaul88]

Why is when i look for stuff to upgrade i see 1982 and up axles,  i have a 81 what gives,  whats the big difference whats the little deifference?  can i bolt ifs hubs to a 81 axle and spindles?

[85runner_]

I'm sure just guesting on the axle tube

[Nimyad]

Axle trusses for one. 79-80 no truss, 81-83 small truss to a little bigger, 84-85 biggest truss and requires a square u bolt. Also 79-early 81 takes a different rotor and has a different rotor hat that is not interchangeable with later parts, such as land cruiser brake upgrade.

[tgmaul88]

But what makes it  non inter change able, the tongue of the knuckle teeth?  can i do the ifs hub swap still?   

[junya92toy]

tongue of knuckle teeth?

[tgmaul88]

where the caliper bolts on?  i dnk i just want to know the main difference for why it will not work, and what do i need to make it work

[Nimyad]

But what makes it  non inter change able, the tongue of the knuckle teeth?  can i do the ifs hub swap still?   

Later rotors have 6 holes for the wheel studs to be pressed through and they have 2 holes to be bolted down with. Older axles don't have those 2 extra holes. I'm not positive why you can't get away without those holes but it makes them not interchangeable. With an ifs hub swap it might not matter though.

[fordh8r]

  If you already have the parts laying around to do the IFS hub swap, why not just take one side apart and see what happens? The worse that could happen is you take it apart, the parts don't work out like you want and you end up repacking the bearings and putting it all back together anyway. So your losses will be very minimal and you will know first hand why it wouldn't work.

  On the other hand, if it works, then you have an upgrade under way! 

[Cheesemaker]

IIRC the first couple years had bigger selector hubs. 

[tgmaul88]

hmm, ill try it,    the worst thing that could happend is it not working, and using a different housing, but ill try it with ifs stuff

[tgmaul88]

i found one of my answer here http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=5628.3060 thanks glen, but what if i wanted to do the ifs hub swap

[79coyotefrg]

do the ifs hub swap. it works I just couldnt do it with my wheels


this is the ONLY difference

for those 79 and 80 owners you don't need to swap to 81-85 hubs.  just drill 4 holes.

79 pickup hub


LandCruiser rotor


Land cruiser rotor sitting on the 79 hub. notice the two small holes are lined up with two of the holes that the 79 rotor used to bolt to the 79 hub