Landcruiser front diff

V8Diesel ,
I spoke to Traction 4 ( Sydney ) about this , as I have a 100 TD auto . They said that the diffs are not as strong in the front and that you should never tow people out backwards or back up steep grades if it can be avoided . They said " do it all in a forwards direction and you should not have a problem "
I always keep this in mind now .
Also I made sure I fitted the front suspension re-enforcement upgrade made by ARB which seemed to be the other big weakness of the IFS.
Cheers ,
Willie .

V8Diesel, Not the same front diff as the 80 series. The front diff in the 100 is the same as the rear Prado unit. I too have heard all the horror stories and have throwen everything at mine without any issues. I have done rocks, mud, sand and all in between. I have seen one busted centre in a solid axel 100 (I'm sure there are a few more) This happened when the guy was snatching another car backwards up a hill. He was reversing and as soon as the load cane on, bang, all over. In my opinion, they are fine as long as you dont do anything silly. There is an issue with the IFS 100 front diff and I think a lot of people have ":tarred them all with the same brush"
I am led to beleive that the 80 series diff will bolt straight in, but have not checked, and hope never to need to!

Mick

Unfortunately, the 100 front diff in the live axle version is thesame diff. The 80 had thesame problems but not as bad as the 100....the 100 diff centre is physically thesame size but with 43 teeth compared to the 80's 41. (The 100 runs 4.3 ratio /80 runs 4.1) so this means the teeth have to be smaller somehow to fit two extra on there at no increase in diameter. This adds to the low strength of ther 80 design, plus the weight increase and the torque increases of the 100 lineup motors and you have problems looming.
Ive heard of 100's getting bogged in sand and reversing was enough to blow the front diff....this is bad!
Its good that Toyota are so confident their cruisers will only need to go forward....hence the design that spreads the teeth appart when reversing....it all comes down to how you drive and how you use the 4b.....try snatching someone in reverse and your loading all 6 ports of the gun.....but it might just be trying to reverse out of a bog....or...anything
Now, ive heard something to the effect that Toyota have put a 4 pinion open centre in the 100 after 2000 to help minimise problems but cant confirm.
The rear Prado diff is thesame size as the 80/100/75 front, and the hilux aswell, but it is a LSD...which cant go in a 100 constant frontend....due to the lsd effecting steering.
Andrew

I believe the 79 and the live axle 100 have the same front diff and they have no worries underground where they are run 24/7 mostly 4wd and do more reversing including up declines flat chat in a week than most would do reversing out of their driveway in a year. Trust me if they were half as bad as Nissan owners, people who know a mate that knows a mate that heard..... or any other such stuff then they would have been found out comercially. and they havnt. They may not be a Nissan huge thing but they are not the ticking time bomb either

Driving 1970's Holden V8's with the M20 and M21 4 speed boxes teaches you to be a bit smoother on drivetrains too.

I have a 2004 toyota landcruiser turbo diesel ute with 90k on it and have had it for 4 months and have blown a front diff in it going up a hill never had problems like this in my 75 series the new diff are to bloody small simple as that.