I'm curious if anyone has swapped an 80 series rear axle into their 3rd gen. A local shop destroyed my housing (and won't own up to it) so I now blow thru inner axle seals every 6 weeks or so and I'm kinda tired of it. I have another 3rd gen housing that would need to be sand blasted due to rust on the outside and inside of it.
I know that the diff is offcentered on the 80 series axle which is my main conceren, or would a custom driveshaft allow it to work fine? All the info I could find was for other land cruisers. I might be batsh*t crazy, but and info would be awesome

It's not offset all that much, you can run a double double card driveshaft. The link mounts might even work.

Post up the shop's name and create a sh!tstorm in all of their reviews.

Just source a proper 4Runner housing. It's not worth the time to make an 80 housing work.

It was posted all over fb and i think on my original post when i did my axle seal. I've read reviews on other toyota groups about their shop up in fort collins also. So whenever anyone asks if I recommend a shop my first answer is to stay away from johns 4x4

I've heard good things about John's 4x4, but most of those good things were a decade or two ago. They've been around for a long time.

As for the original question, it's a lot of work considering 4runners can be found in just about every junkard across the US of A. Especially in the front range. Why not just get the axle that will bolt up and work as originally intended?

Yes, an 80 axle would probably work, but you will need to strip it down and run it under some leaf springs or build yourself a custom link setup. The links are different sizes, brackets are in different locations, etc. You will need to strip the housing down to bare and start from scratch. Just seems like a lot of unnecessary work.

^ thats the answer I was looking for. I'm off to find a new 4runner axle. I was sent a link to a guy who did put an 80 series axle in the rear, looks pretty badass
1998 4runner build - Page 3 - Pirate4x4.Com : 4x4 and Off-Road Forum

This.

It works for me and you don't need a double carden drive shaft. The lower links are almost in the exact same as the stock axle. The uppers are turned at a different angle and the coil perches are spaced wider. It just depends on how much work you want to do. It' a damn good axle though.

yeah but you have an lc tcase.

My bad, I didn't think about that.

Find one with the elocker.

found a rear axle minus 3rd member at a pull and pay with very little rust. The people who are allowed to move the car hoists don't work weekends so I pulled both axle shafts and will get new bearings pushed int and plan on going back on my day off to get the housing. If I do go sas (hopefully one day) I will consider 80 axles front and rear. Thanks for all the info guys!

Glad you found an easier way to deal with your problem. I don't want to tell you not to do the SAS, but I would say you are buying trouble going with 80 series axles. And I can tell you why.

1. They are much wider than you need, 3" wider than a 60 series which is already too wide.

2. The rear carrier uses a 9-1/4" ring gear, awesome strong, totally unnecessary for a 3rd gen. So your 3rd member won't work, and you'll be buying gears and lockers. Although it does have rear discs and full floating axles, again it isn't something you need.

3. Offset rear carrier means unless it's a dedicated trail vehicle, you'll have vibrations, and not good ones. Yes you can try swapping in a L/C transfer case, but that again is of NO value since there is no gear availability.

4. No high steer options available off the shelf for the front. I had my knuckles machined flat on top and had steering arms made. I use a hybrid Toyota/1 ton Chevy steering set up. Spent almost $2500 to do that.

5. The money you think you might save, will get spent, there is no cost advantage.

6. Between the OE options and the aftermarket, you can build much more standardized axles that will give you years of trouble free service.

Hellfire knuckles would sorta qualify as an off the shelf high steer solution, but they're not cheap!

yeah, exactly, where was he in 2005? could have saved me 20 or 30 dollars!

In shipping...