I am in the process of having a FJ80 rear axle centered. The long side of the axle will be shortened to match the short side. This will keep the cost of housing modification down and will not require custom shafts. The WMS to WMS should be 55" - 57" and as with a mini front wheel spacers will be needed for extra width.

This should result in a full floating rear axle with a selectable locker, 9.5" differential geared to 5.29, disk brakes and a nice factory e-brake for about $1500. Except for the housing there will be no custom parts. This will keep the build cost down and make replacement parts easy to find.

The only downside should be a 3/4" loss in ground clearance. I think this is a small price to pay for the added strength and not having my tire fall off if something does break.

Cost
$550 - Stock rear axle
$150 - Having axle centered
$100 - 2nd short shaft
$100 - Spacers
$ 25 - Spring perch
$500 - Geared to 5.29

Here is a link to my build page which explains why I went with this axle over the other options that are available. http://www.gentryoffroad.com/php/tru...nner/phaseIII/

Threads that my brother started for this axle.
Pirate4x4 - http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showt...php?p=12037123
Marlin - http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=74719.0


Stock FJ80 rear in my brothers truck




A picture of a centered FJ80 rear that was in a FJ40



Fj80 rear third next to a 8" high pinion e-locker.




E-break setup

 

Been thinking about doing the same thing except not shortening it.


Good luck!

 

Stock fj80 wms to wms is 63". This is 3" wider than your front.
The drive shaft won't hit your gas tank because it is on the driver side. This was a problem for me because 2nd gen tank is on the passenger side.

I'm not sure if having the transmission centered and the differential offset would cause problems on a daily driver.
If you end up having to center it 2" wheel spacers would put you somewhere in the 59" - 61" range.
By modifying both sides and using custom shafts you could make the wms to wms any length you wanted but it starts pushing up the price.

 

nice idea whokrz!!

have you thought about going to a land cruiser front also?

there are a few guys running them up here that like the setup.

 

Someday I will put a fj60 in the front. I think it is 58" wms to wms. It also has the 9.5" differential which should hold up better to longs. For now I will run it with a mini front and hope I don't break my expensive hi-pinion e-locker.

 

Wheel spacers don't scare me. People who don't know how to take care of wheel spacers do scare me

 

Nah, having the driveline at a slight angle really won't hurt anything.
It might go through u-joints a bit faster
It's not offset all the way over to the spring so you wouldnt have any issues with that, either.

 

With all the brackets cut off


Centered

 

Any updates?

 

wish there was some, he hasn't been around for a month:
Last Activity: 11-22-2010 05:51 PM

 

The axle is still in the same condition as it was when I last posted. I am currently waiting on money to buy/install 5.29 gears and other misc parts. I was going to have the axle under the truck by July 2011. I haven't worked in 4 weeks so unfortunately it may be closer to 2012 before the axle is under the truck. Another year of daily driving a lock-rite, O lucky me.