Offroad-Express

does anyone know if the front axle lengths are the same or different in beam axle hilux utes, surfs and prados? smalls same longs different?
are any stronger than the others? I'm right in saying the prados have smaller cv's?

The prado has a bigger cv and bit stronger... Not sure about axle lenghts

I found this (in inches)

Hilux
'79-85 front axle~ 55.5", rear axle~ 55"
'86-95 front IFS~ 59", rear axle~ 58.5"

Prado and 75 series cruiser have the same cv it has more meat on the end of the bell

If your willing to make your own housing then look at mixing cruiser short side shafts in for more width... I'm running a hilux long side inner (longest one of all the models) and a 40 series short side... this makes me 60mm wider


If you want more width I think the 60 series short side is longer but I can't remember how much

L/c 40-60-70 short sides are all the same lenght
Short side on 80 is longer by 50-75mm at a guess

40-60-70 only changed the long side

40-70 are pretty much equal until they went to the smaller diffs in late 90's

De-Ranged wrote:If your willing to make your own housing

willing but don't have the skills.

been trying to fit 85 surf axles into a prado solid diff. using the 85 surf head, short axle fits fine but long axle too long. gonna cut some off end and see if that helps. hopefully still be enough teeth on the end.

What are you hoping to gain by using Hilux axles instead of the Prado ones?
Cutting the spline shorter will only weaken things and lead to damage to your diff head and axle. Less spline means more load gets put on the remaining splined area, so any gains you are trying to get from a hilux axle will be countered by cutting the splined end shorter.

Smurf wrote:What are you hoping to gain by using Hilux axles instead of the Prado ones?

don't have the prado ones and have two hilux diffs sitting here.

My thoughts on cutting axles has all yo do about spline contact area.
If you can keep contact area to 100% then potentailly all good. You will affect the strenght by cutting the axle to a certain degree. But thats the gamble verse risk assesment you will need to work out.
If the spline contact area is less than 100% then you risk ripping the splines apart and if that spline is in the side gear you may not be able to extract the axle afterwards. And that would be a real curse.

get the splines milled /extended along the shaft further, then just cut off what isn't required

Crash bandicoot wrote:get the splines milled /extended along the shaft further, then just cut off what isn't required

will look at that. who would do that around palmy?

triple R on sh3 arahuri, or ashurst engineering,should have the gear to mill splines

Crash bandicoot wrote:get the splines milled /extended along the shaft further, then just cut off what isn't required

cost to do this is silly... the splines have a profile that isn't matched by any carbide out there other than the proper cutters, next issue is the crystalline structure of the treated shaft, so what this means is you need to anneal the shaft first then get it machined by someone with that profile cutter and then heat treated again, to pay for this to be done properly you'd be better to buy another prado axle minus diff lol it would be cheaper

You can cut splines without annealing and retreatment of the axle, problem is this cuts into the crystalline structure of the shafts and will leave you with a weaker shaft

I have cut splines using grinding disk in the mill... profiling the grinding disk with a diamond till it polishes the whole of a section of current spline, but this is incredibly slow


This example is to join a transfercase to to a trans... the dia is bigger than an axle and shouldn't see the shock loading an axle will see so I felt it was an except-able option
The other option is a triangular tip in a custom milling cutter its faster but the shape of the spline is wrong and will make for a slightly weaker option

ok.

back to the original question, are the beam axle surf long axles and the hilux long axles the same length or different lengths?
I've been told that the surf axles are about half an inch longer than the hilux ones, but they aren't 100% on that. if that's right I will just use a hilux one not a surf one. I just used the surf diff as the donor because it had a 4.3 head in it (which is the ratio I'm using), the hilux one has a 4.875 in it.

Sorry to be OT but I have to ask de-ranged if the stub of splined shaft welded onto the end is there temporarily to index the new spline you are cutting? If it is its an amazing low budget dividing head I like it!

Yes it is, the shaft was cut just this side of the spline so welding it on had no effect to the end result

Back to the original Q, I'm pretty certain the axles on the surf and the hilux were the same, to be honest I'm a little surprised to find the prado is shorter.... this makes me concerned that the short axle you fitted is probably too short

If you have surf front axles why don't you use one of them instead of the prado axle

mudsurfv6 wrote:back to the original question, are the beam axle surf long axles and the Hilux long axles the same length or different lengths?

Yes. They are the same length. Same everything as the same gen Hilux.

mudsurfv6 wrote:I've been told that the surf axles are about half an inch longer than the Hilux ones

They may have meant (or been confused with) the rear axles. Anything that is ifs has a wider rear solid axle than the factory front solid axle trucks.

Both short and long side Prado axles are different lengths to the Hiluxs axles. From memory (don't quote me) the Prado has a shorter short side and a longer long side than the Hilux.

Checkerhead wrote:From memory (don't quote me) the Prado has a shorter short side and a longer long side than the Hilux.

might be other way around, because the short surf axle fits (but not sure if going all the way into head, turns it though) into prado housing but the long surf axle is about half inch too long.

Checkerhead wrote:Yes. They are the same length. Same everything as the same gen Hilux.

surf axle obviously gen one, not sure what the hilux diff I have is. are the gen 2 hilux axles different lengths to the gen 1?

Nope Hilux stuff are the same.... right up untill the change to IFS

Nope. All Hilux/surf solid front axles are the same. (Obviously bolt on things changed through the years, like vented discs, bigger drive shaft bolts etc) but all are the same width. Rear axles only got wider to suit IFS front ends.

(just went to post and De-Ranged beat me to it)

looks like either cutting down a hilux/surf one or use a prado one.