ive never broken one before. i was just wondering, if you break one will you still be able to drive it home? or will it mess up the steering? what happens?

 

The front ends of yoters are full-floaters. If you brake a CV shaft or a birf (IFS vs Solid) it only effects 4 wheel drive. Disengage the hubs and for IFS remove the shaft (just cut the boots and pull out the center shaft) .. birf just leave it till you get home or somewhere level to change it. These are both fixes you can do on the trail if you have the spare birf or cv shaft.

 

if the birf breaks a certain way it could bind your steering, this usually happens randomly, one turn it will be fine, the next it wont steer, which could be bad depending how fast you are going and the type of road your driving on, bottom line, get the birf out ASAP, if you cant right away, unlock both hubs and run 2hi, unless you absolutely have to run low range, this will keep damage to the housing minimal

 

Depends how it breaks ... when Molly's broke, the only thing we really noticed was it didn't seemwe could make the Trutrac work. They were broke for quite some time.

Worst case, yes, you just pull the birf and drive home as the front is full floating.

To clarify the post above - the preTacoma (95 and earlier) are full floating. The Tacoma/3rd gen 4Runners (95.5 - present) are NOT unless they have manual hubs. On these trucks, you MUST have at least the outer stub of the CV in place to retain the inner bearing.

 

A busted birf that is driven upon can mess up a lot of stuff...knuckles, steering arms, locker, axles...it just really depends on the severity of the "break".

Lots of "birf" talk on the web so try to help you find some more info and pictures of "exploded" birfs.

 

when my first stock birf blew i figured i could limp it home 15 miles, 5 of that on the freeway... well i got it home but i wouldn't care to do it again. every time i turned to the left the steering would lock ... on tear down the axle oil seal was nowhere to be found, the spindle brass bushing was wasted and the inside of the bell torn up. the axle housing lives on but it has scars....

so don't drive on a broken birf if you can help it, buy longfields asap....

 

thanks for the info. if i break one, ill just change it out then.

 

thats what i had to do. i lost my turning instantly when one of mine grenaded.

 

Yep, depends on the severity of the break. I once cracked both birfs on a trail run. Heard the distinctive clicking sound and unlocked the hubs. Was able to drive the rest of the trail, engaging the front hubs once or twice. Base camp was in the desert and that evening had a big wind storm and with the blowing sand and dust, did not want to chance replacing them there. Since steering was OK, was able to drive 500 miles home and then change them out in the driveway. At first I though I only had one busted birf and I only carried one spare. Once I opened up the axle, found both were broken (the original welded-ring Marfield joints - I guess the ring did its job and held things together despite the crack in the bell). So I would not have been able to replace both of them on the trail anyway, although could have pulled them out I suppose.