Christian Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 (edited) Hi all...I have just purchased a 1984 New Horizon with the bad rear axle and now I also purchased a 1986 1 ton dually toyota pickup with the 6 lug setup. I have searched and searched for a topic on this but had no luck...my vehicles are jacked up and I am ready to start the work but. I was planning on unbolting the shocks, leaf assemblies and brake lines so I could just roll the entire assembly under the RV but I just noticed the rear end on my RV is larger then the rear end on my parts truck but the axle housing diameter is smaller. The rouch dimension of the rear end on my RV is about one inch larger all the way around and the axle housing is a half inch smaller. My questions are... Which rear end would be better (or can I tell just by the housing size)? Is what I am attempting to do the proper way of doing things? Sorry if I am using the worng terminology...I don't know much about this stuff obviously...and I am sure I am in over my head by now Any help will be greatly appreciated...I am running out of time very rapidly since I am doing this work on the street and am sure the neighbors are not pleased. Thank you, Christian p.s. If there are any experts in on this stuff I would be more then happy to pay them for a phone conversation. I am really lost right now and want to so the right things. Edited April 19, 2009 by Christian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Polytech Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 (edited) Hi all...I have just purchased a 1984 New Horizon with the bad rear axle and now I also purchased a 1986 1 ton dually toyota pickup with the 6 lug setup.I have searched and searched for a topic on this but had no luck...my vehicles are jacked up and I am ready to start the work but. I was planning on unbolting the shocks, leaf assemblies and brake lines so I could just roll the entire assembly under the RV but I just noticed the rear end on my RV is larger then the rear end on my parts truck but the axle housing diameter is smaller. The rouch dimension of the rear end on my RV is about one inch larger all the way around and the axle housing is a half inch smaller. My questions are... Which rear end would be better (or can I tell just by the housing size)? Is what I am attempting to do the proper way of doing things? Sorry if I am using the worng terminology...I don't know much about this stuff obviously...and I am sure I am in over my head by now Any help will be greatly appreciated...I am running out of time very rapidly since I am doing this work on the street and am sure the neighbors are not pleased. Thank you, Christian p.s. If there are any experts in on this stuff I would be more then happy to pay them for a phone conversation. I am really lost right now and want to so the right things. Hi, Christian. I am not an "expert", but I do have experience w/ dropping rear axles to swap out spring packs and install lift kits on 4x4 trucks...Also, coincidentally I am basically in the same boat you are (84' New Horizon 21') -except the previous owners who had mine experienced rear end failure at around 60,000 miles. They then took it to a Toyota Dealer in San Diego who replaced the rear axle w/ another semi-floating junkyard unit from a Toyota 2 wheel drive truck (basically the same unit as failed but w/ an incorrect gear ratio which makes it almost impossible to climb even slight hills in 4th gear). My post is about halfway down the page- through my post I met Matt from Mid-America Landcruiser. He supplied me w/ a unit from some kind of Toyota courtesy bus or some such unit- it seems a little different from the standard full floating motorhome unit, but the chassis/ frame width is the same so hopefully I will not have too many issues to deal with ( I have about 35 years automotive mechanical experience, mostly engine/ suspension/ steering/ gearbox and chassis), working on my own stuff and building street rods for fun. If you have very limited automotive mechanical experience or almost none at all I would reccomend you NOT attempt an axle swap; especially in a situation where you must move or fabricate shock mounts or leaf spring brackets to get things to line up right (didn't you mention that the dimensions of your new/ transfer axle are different; or incorrect for your motorhome chassis?) or where you just saying that the outer dimensions are different? Or both? The outer dimensions will be different between axles as they are two different engineering designs and to accomodate functionality for each different type (semi-floating vrs. full floating) they must be... However, this does not necessarily mean that things will or will not line up, either... If you cannot facilitate determining if things will line up or not between your motorhome chassis and your new axle with or without modifications; this is definately not a job for you. You can always find someone in your area who is familiar with this type of work (like guys who build street rods for fun and could use a few xtra bucks) a lot of times these guys have done axle swaps and the mods needed to facilitate the swaps as needed; and will work for a quite a bit cheaper than so-called professional mechanics (a word about so-called professional/ dealer mechaincs; many of them are terrible; not because the dont know what they are doing; although sometimes this may be the case; but because they really are sick of working on cars day in and day out and just dont care any more). Finding a good mechanic can often be difficult- the best way is to talk to people you know and STAY AWAY FROM THE DEALER SHOPS! A perfect example is the Toyota dealership who replaced the rear axle in my unit for the previous owners- being a Toyota dealer and fully (more than likely) aware of the axle recall, instead of replacing the axle w/ the correct full floating high-ratio axle; instead they replaced it w/ a junkyard axle w/ a low ratio (O.K. for two wheel drive pickups but out to lunch for a heavy motorhome) that would be destined to fail again; but not only that; what they charged them for the junkyard axle and the work was the same which it would have cost for the correct replacement axle installed! This is what I would call outright dishonesty on the part of the Toyota dealers service dept., plain and simple. If they didn't know about the recall (highly unlikely as they ARE a Toyota dealership), they definitely should have known enough to match axle ratios between the old axle and the replacement unit. Anyway, I have seen more customers ripped off and more vehicles screwed up by idiot dealer mechanics than I have small local independent mechanics...Local independents have a reputation to uphold; where dealer mechanics are basically "faceless" and all you have for recourse is the bureaucracy of their service dept. capitalizing on the unfamiliarity of most customers w/ the field. (otherwise the customers would do their own work, right?) So whatever you do STAY AWAY FROM DEALER MECHANICS! I cannot over-emphasize this. Good luck, James. Edited April 19, 2009 by Mr Polytech Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tumolt Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 I am in the same boat. I have a Huntsmant with a 5 lug rear. The gear ratio is 2.20 which means it is set up for good highway mileage. The 20R motor has only 16K. I will be changing the differential to a 1 to full floater. The optional gear rations were 4.10 up so I will be loosing mileage. I was hoping to find someone who knew about this from these forums. Thanks, Matt P.S. How can I do my own post here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 I am in the same boat. I have a Huntsmant with a 5 lug rear. The gear ratio is 2.20 which means it is set up for good highway mileage. The 20R motor has only 16K. I will be changing the differential to a 1 to full floater. The optional gear rations were 4.10 up so I will be loosing mileage. I was hoping to find someone who knew about this from these forums. Thanks, Matt P.S. How can I do my own post here? Just click on new topic on any forum your in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacLisa Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 We have just installed a rear end such as this. Would be happy to have a conversation with you about it. Email me with a phone number and I will call you. Mac Hi all...I have just purchased a 1984 New Horizon with the bad rear axle and now I also purchased a 1986 1 ton dually toyota pickup with the 6 lug setup.I have searched and searched for a topic on this but had no luck...my vehicles are jacked up and I am ready to start the work but. I was planning on unbolting the shocks, leaf assemblies and brake lines so I could just roll the entire assembly under the RV but I just noticed the rear end on my RV is larger then the rear end on my parts truck but the axle housing diameter is smaller. The rouch dimension of the rear end on my RV is about one inch larger all the way around and the axle housing is a half inch smaller. My questions are... Which rear end would be better (or can I tell just by the housing size)? Is what I am attempting to do the proper way of doing things? Sorry if I am using the worng terminology...I don't know much about this stuff obviously...and I am sure I am in over my head by now Any help will be greatly appreciated...I am running out of time very rapidly since I am doing this work on the street and am sure the neighbors are not pleased. Thank you, Christian p.s. If there are any experts in on this stuff I would be more then happy to pay them for a phone conversation. I am really lost right now and want to so the right things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacLisa Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 We have just installed a rear end such as this. Would be happy to have a conversation with you about it. Email me with a phone number and I will call you.Mac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacLisa Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 We purchased an 83 toyota Sunrader with 5 lug axles. After searching for two weeks I finally found a 1 ton full floating rear axle. How I knew it would fit the 83 was that I measured center line to center line of the leaf springs (side to side) and bolt to bolt (front to back) of the leaf springs. I also measured backing plate to backing plate (side to side) on the rear end. So the rear end I puchased fit perfectly. The problem was that I had no dually wheels (rims). The wheels are made by TOPY. I finally found the rims and puchased another front and rear end. The rear end replacement was a major challenge I had to modify the muffler, sway bar and shocks. While I was in there I went ahead and pulled the axles, packed the wheel bearings, adjusted the breaks, changed the oil in the differential, bled the breaks, drained the fuel tank and I will take it down off of the jack stands tomorrow. Its worth every minute Mac I am in the same boat. I have a Huntsmant with a 5 lug rear. The gear ratio is 2.20 which means it is set up for good highway mileage. The 20R motor has only 16K. I will be changing the differential to a 1 to full floater. The optional gear rations were 4.10 up so I will be loosing mileage. I was hoping to find someone who knew about this from these forums. Thanks, Matt P.S. How can I do my own post here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gulfstream Greg Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 Any full floating axle is designed to be behind a V6 motor. They are a third member (gear set) type axle which means the gear ratio is easy to change. The whole third member can just be pulled out (well a bit more work) and a new one bolted back in. The full floating axle uses the same third member (gear set) that any Toyota pickup supplied with a V6 would have. Here is the info about the bad axles http://www.toyotamotorhomes.com/files/Axle_FAQ.pdf The bad axle has killed and will kill again as it has not been eradicated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodybagger Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 (edited) ...but I just noticed the rear end on my RV is larger then the rear end on my parts truck but the axle housing diameter is smaller.The rouch dimension of the rear end on my RV is about one inch larger all the way around and the axle housing is a half inch smaller. My questions are... Which rear end would be better (or can I tell just by the housing size)? Is what I am attempting to do the proper way of doing things? See http://home.4x4wire.com/erik/diffs/ It sounds like the axle you got has a 2 pinion differential and the axle you are replacing has a 4 pinion differential. I am not sure that swapping the two differentials is as simple as removing one and bolting the other one in. Above all, make sure you are not getting a higher gear with a ratio lower than 4.10:1. See if you can read the axle identification. See http://www.toysport.com/Technical%20Inform...tifications.htm for decoding it. Edited May 16, 2009 by Bodybagger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss67ls Posted June 29, 2016 Share Posted June 29, 2016 I am converting my 84 new horizon to ff how do I get past leaf spring mounting distance the ff rearend is inch and a half narrower than my factory springs I can get it to sit on the pins but leafs are not straight.any ideas best way to make it work thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 On 6/29/2016 at 0:43 AM, ss67ls said: I am converting my 84 new horizon to ff how do I get past leaf spring mounting distance the ff rearend is inch and a half narrower than my factory springs I can get it to sit on the pins but leafs are not straight.any ideas best way to make it work thanks Just cut the mounting pads off and weld them back on in the needed location. Not a high-tech job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 On 5/7/2009 at 11:02 PM, Gulfstream Greg said: Any full floating axle is designed to be behind a V6 motor. Not true. There were plenty of Toyota dually trucks with full-floaters and four-cylinder engines in the late 80s. I've cut apart two of them. The full-floater our Toyota RVs use were first used in Toyota Dyna-Coaster school buses starting in 1969. They came with either a 2 liter, four-cylinder gas engine or a 2.5 liter, four-cylinder diesel. I suspect (but cannot prove) that Toyota copied the small FF design from the Ford Transit vans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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