Alright, so I just barely signed up on this forum and I already have a couple questions. First things first. My name is Enrique and I live in Bountiful, Utah. The vehicle is a 1986 Suzuki Samurai JX. We bought this a couple months ago and have already taken most of it apart. I just have a question. My rear differential is making a noise and I'm pretty sure it's my ring and pinion bearings, possibly another kind of bearing. Instead of taking it apart and messing it up, I would like to just replace the whole axle. Suzuki axles are somewhat hard to come by around here and I've heard of people using toyota axles on samurais. What year would the rear axle need to be out of? And what else is needed to make it work? Any info would be greatly appreciated. I did a search on toyota axles on here and found out some stuff but I would love direct answers. Thanks in advance.

First off, you'd have to do both front and rear axles because most toy axles are 4.10 or 4.30 and your sammy axle is a 3.73 ratio.  The bolt pattern is also different so you will need new rims.  And the axles are 3-6" wider (depending on the year). 

the spring perches are different so you'd either have to mount 2.5" wide springs on your samurai or weld 2" perches on the toy axles.  There will be modifications to your steering and brakes as well. 

With a few tools, a good manual and some patience, I think its a lot easier to rebuild a diff than to do an axle swap.  And by time you get all done, it probably would have been cheaper to pay someone to rebuild your diff than to buy all the parts you need for the toyota swap.

How big of tires are you looking at running anyway?

 You didn't look very hard for part's...I have a set of welded third's,open third's or a complete rear end for your samurai....Quite abit of work to swap toy's in,there are kit's to bolt in or fab your own.It may be best to fix what ya got now,gather the part's for the Toy swap and do it when your ready.

 I'm in evanston wy,I'd be happy to help a guy out...

Okay thanks a lot for the help. Decided to ditch the toyota axle idea.Thanks to some help from the fabricator from Low Range off road I now have a new samurai axle that'll be going in while we rebuild the old one. Right now it's sitting on some 31's and a 7 inch lift. Eventually we are wanting to run at least 35's. A 6.5-1 case is in the plans, but what else would be a good idea to replace?

You'll want to get a t-case cradle and some better mounts.  Possibly an engine swap, but time will tell on that.  Are you going with the Trail Tough Chromo axle shafts for the front and rear?

Im going with the stock shafts. I heard the HD ones are heavier and for now im running the 1.3 for awhile so i dont know if it would be a good idea. Also put a lockright in the rear along with new axle seals and a pinion seal. Im having trouble putting the axle shafts back in. Are the axle bearings supposed to be pressed the axle housing, or the actual axle shafts?

the rear axle bearings are pressed onto the axle shafts, followed by the retaining collar.  you may need to give the shafts a little persuasion to seat fully into the axle.  but keep rotating the shaft a little at a time as you tap them in to make sure the axle shaft splines line up with the side gears in the diff.

The splines are lining up with the side gears. The bearing just seems to be stopping the shafts from going into the housing all the way. How hard should I tap them to try to get them in? I don't want to damage anything.

funny you mention that, because I did wheel bearings on a sammy axle for the first time about 6 months ago.  I wondered the exact same thing.  I ended up putting a block of wood on the center of the axle shaft and wailed it pretty hard with a 2lb hammer.  So either they are designed with an interferance fit, or the housing had some scale or rust in there that caused it to be a tight fit.  Either way, it went in straight and we've had no problems with the axle since then.

Can anyone else who is more experienced with a Sammy rear axle comment?  Does the axle bearing usually just slide right into the housing or is it designed to be pressed or hammered in?

Thanks for the reply JoeSteak. I wailed on it to with a mallet and it worked. I drove it around town for awhile and it did fine. Then i took it wheeling and now it leaks. I think its because the bearings are not pressed on right. Does anyone know of a good shop who can do this for me? Are the bearings hard to find? I bought a kit from NAPA with the retaining ring and my brother had a friend who said could do it for us. A week later he said they were the wrong bearings and he couldnt find the right size.

Did you replace the inner axle seal at the same time?

Yeah i did both seals and just used some old bearings on a used axle. Like i said it ran just fine around town for about a week and when i went wheeling it started leaking. So could that be the bearings?

It sounds like you nicked the seal when installing the axle.  With a good inner seal the oil should never reach the bearing to start leaking.

how did you get the old bearing and retaining collar off? is there any chance that you scored the axle with a grinder?  it could be leaking between the axle shaft and the retaining collar.  Otherwise, the outter lip of the seal could have been damaged when you put it back together like Drone 637 mentioned.  I've done that before with the seal on a toyota front axle wheel hub.  I dont think you have any other option than to pull the axle shaft back out and see whats the problem.