Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Has anybody put free wheeling hubs on the back axle and is there any advantage/disadvantage to doing it?

I've had a couple of rear axle probs lately which have required me to go front wheel drive. Rather than dropping the driveshaft i thought it might be easier just to unlock the rear hubs?

Matt

would depend on the model i guess.. eg a patrol - not possible....

More trouble than its worth i guess.. i mean.. its only 8 bolts and nuts for the shaft to come loose and 10 / 15 mins of your time..

TOM

on a troopy. HJ75.

It relates to a mod i might do because i have broken 4 of 6 axle studs in the last week.
Figured i'd do the mod front and back and perhaps put freewheeling front and back so i have spares as i wouldn't imagine it would be an off the shelf item if i do break something (or if it is i might have to wait a while).

this is the mod
http://home.comcast.net/~dtay/web_share ... e_hubs.jpg

Matt

if your breaking axle studs putting free wheelers won't stop the studs from breaking. i'd consider doing the 100 series stud up grade. they are 10mm as apposed to 8mm.

You would have to get new shafts made with splines both ends, which would be very expensive and possibly not as strong as the stock Toyota units. AISIN hubs are probably stronger than any aftermarket free wheelers, but I don,t know that they would be up to severe use in the rear.
Bill.

I know free wheelers wont stop them breaking. It's just if i'm going to modify hubs i might modify them the same front and back.

that pic i linked to. 6 dowel 6 stud. that's what i'm considering.

prob stronger than 10mm upgrade. the twisting force should be taken by the dowels. not the studs.

I have seen this done on the back of a hj75 ute. It was done so they could easily flat tow it behind the bus they were travelling around Australia in. They had a "A-Frame" steering linkage hooked up to the ute steering and solid mounted onto the bus.

Guys in the states do it on their lux's for the same reason as you. I have a picture of kit on my work computer somewhere. I will post it up on Tuesday. It was a complete bolt on kit, with bolt on stub axles, hubs, disc brakes & axles. From memory the kit was about 1500 USD.

It should be pretty easy if you have a HZJ75 (1991 on) not the earlier HJ75 as the later model had full foating rear diff anyway, so it would be a case of converting the hub over to accept a free wheelin hub.

Someone like RUFF would not the specific of doing this conversion.

evil_hitman wrote:I know free wheelers wont stop them breaking. It's just if i'm going to modify hubs i might modify them the same front and back.

that pic i linked to. 6 dowel 6 stud. that's what i'm considering.

prob stronger than 10mm upgrade. the twisting force should be taken by the dowels. not the studs.

i do a 6 dowel mod using 7mm std size dowels .
$70-00 a side when u remove the hubs ......

Wouldnt be overly strong you wouldn't reckon. All the wait and torque? Burnouts, lockers?

Camshaft1 wrote:Wouldnt be overly strong you wouldn't reckon. All the wait and torque? Burnouts, lockers?

i agree, i reckon you'd be adding more things to break and go wrong, considering they'd be in use all the time i don't thing they'd last long as the rear axle gets a bit more load than the front.

Matt, I think it is a good idea, if your Troopy has the full floating axles then it should be straight forward to graft some manual hubs on.
It gives you a bit more flexibility if you bust a diff or rear axle.

well it is full floating. it is a HJ75. but the axle is spline on one end and flange on the other so i would need to go to the 2 spline end axle for free wheeling.

Matt

I was wondering if someone did this on the rear with the auto locking hubs like you see on some 4runner/ surfs you would have yourself a rear disconnect system that people seem to want in comps?

Matt,

I used to have freewheeling hubs in the rear diff of my FJ40. I did a full floater conversion on a semi floater 40 series axle as full floater axles were hard to find in the States. The conversion process is exactly like the Hilux kits you see sold in the US sites mentioned.

I took off the freewheeling hubs due to the axle seals leaking within a year. The freewheeling hubs do not center the axle exactly in the centre of the housing because it has excessive tolerance. This tolerance allowed the axle to ride on the seals wearing them down very quickly.

I now run drive flanges:



Dave