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Machining down axle WMS centrebore


zep

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Hey all,

My search for long toyota G-series axles has led me find that the longest ones come from 4x4s like a Surf. I should be able to swap from 6 stud to 4 stud without too many problems, but the issue is that they have a 101.6mm centrebore which is way too large. Does anyone have any experience in machining this down? I have my discs mounted behind the WMS so I am only concerned with getting the wheels on.

Cheers

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Yeah easy. That part of the axles isn't hardened.  You'll also need to watch out with the 6 stud ones the back side of axle flange too big to fit a smaller pcd. So will need to be machined smaller to fit the studs in.   I recall way back my cert guy wasn't happy for that part of axle to be machined. I don't know If thats actually a thing or not. But maybe worth finding out first. Some of the hiace ones are also quite long

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1 hour ago, kpr said:

 Some of the hiace ones are also quite long

I've heard this. Any ideas which ones? There are 5 stud 2WD and 6 stud 4X4 Hiaces. Hard to get a wrecker to go out and measure the wms to wms for me!

52 minutes ago, cletus said:

I think some of the reasons for using 6 stud axles are the holes are further away from the 4x110 or whatever a Mazda is compared to a 5 stud axle

 

And they are cheap and easy to find  

That's good to know that people use them.

Keen to know about that back side machining too.

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Wow! Thanks @johnny.race So it's not quite as easy as I had been told.

My current diff is one of the 1410mm wide ones. I'm essentially looking for axles that are the splines plus the tapered area longer, so I can cut it all off and respline at my required length.

Do you think there is enough material in the mounting face centre to machine a 6 stud down to 68.3mm from the stock 101.6mm?

As I mentioned above, my rotors are currently mounted behind the flange face. I need to pull them off and see how this was achieved as I didn't do it personally. Could be some machine trickery behind there.

Is there any reason not to just grab an entire 6 stud hiace housing and axles then, if they are more butty? Will my existing hilux diff head work with this?

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Does a 6 stud to 4 stud hubcentric bolt on adapter solve your problem?

 

That's what I did on my kp with hilux diff. I used a land cruiser disc and rx7 caliper in the braking department then used 2 left hand side r30 skyline handbrake cables. 

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12 minutes ago, mjrstar said:

Does a 6 stud to 4 stud hubcentric bolt on adapter solve your problem?

 

That's what I did on my kp with hilux diff. I used a land cruiser disc and rx7 caliper in the braking department then used 2 left hand side r30 skyline handbrake cables. 

 I don't think so. I'm trying to shorten the diff and the space that the adapter would take up would mean I need to go in even further.

 

23 hours ago, johnny.race said:

The longest axles that still make use of the conventional style Hilux wheel bearing holder housing register are the KUN's. You be wanting the early KUN that is sans ABS. 5 stud or 6 name your poison - they are both XL in length compared to the earlier stuff.

 

Is there a KUN equivalent of a Hiace? There are heaps of them at wreckers.

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In my experience the Late 80's to Early 2000's Hiace are the same as your Hilux's - as in the splines, with drum brakes standard. They will use the same head and axle flange bolt pattern, however I believe the 5.1 Ratio has a notch in the housing for the larger Crown wheel (in itself that is quite a rare one, much like finding a 3.7 or 3.9)  There's different types of housings, a centre style with the axle tubes welded in, and more of a 2 stamped halves housing then welded style if I remember correctly?

I used to prefer the Leaf Spring Diffs over say the Hilux Surfs, as it meant less brackets to cut off. I had run a mix of Hiace,Hilux, Hilux Surf, and Prado. I think certain Landcruiser could be used also

 

Johnny race will no doubt set the record straight

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Yep, mine is the one with the weld down the centre.

It's starting to feel like with the work I will have to do I may as well start again with a Borgwarner or something, as they have heaps of drop in aftermarket heads and probably a lack of annoying axle tapers.

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Maybe not so much for a road car but one thing that intrigued me for a rwd race car like a starlet or escort  would be to drop in a sprint car style quick change rear end..

There will be a reason I haven't thought of why this is a dumb idea, but man you can pour some cash into shortening an oem diff if you are outsourcing all the work. 

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9 hours ago, kpr said:

what length do you need?   have you looked into aftermarket 4wd stuff?  maybe something that you dont have to get re-splined

Longfield Chromoly Rear Axle Shafts Pair

I did initially when I was looking for something that was the correct centrebore. At this point I may as well just buy some blanks with extra long spines that can be cut down. Then I can just machine down the centrebore and be done with it. I'll have another look.

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If you are bolting the disc behind the axle face, do you even need a center spigot on the axle? 

 

It's obviously better if the wheel locates on a spigot in the middle , but if you aren't running spacers, and your wheels have tapered nuts, it's not actually a cert requirement,  the axle face could be flat  

 

 

I dunno if starting again would be any better, if you have a good hilux diff already, a borg Warner isn't a bad diff but by the time you buy one, rebuild it,  get the right ratio and a good lsd, and buy axles it might be more expensive than persevering with what you have  

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Yeah, you're right. I need to pull my axle out again and measure it up.

I have found some axles such as this: https://www.nitro-gear.com/Toyota-8-8-4-Nitro-Chromoly-CTL-Axle-p/axt34060.htm

But even cut down to the narrowest I don't think will be short enough.

That's good to know about the spigot - I thought they were necessary for ensuring strength.

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4 hours ago, mjrstar said:

Maybe not so much for a road car but one thing that intrigued me for a rwd race car like a starlet or escort  would be to drop in a sprint car style quick change rear end..

There will be a reason I haven't thought of why this is a dumb idea, but man you can pour some cash into shortening an oem diff if you are outsourcing all the work. 

That silver KP Starlet at OS Drags last time, had a sprint car Winters in it.

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