Isuzu Differentials FAQ

OK, here's the straight information on the differentials, from two sources: the Hollander Salvage Yard Interchange Reference and my own junkyard testing. If you find any exceptions, I'd love to hear of them, so please email me at randii@off-road.com.

Three types of Isuzu corporate differentials exist: 8-bolt, 10-bolt, and 12-bolt. The number of bolts refers to the number of bolts holding the ring gear to the differential carrier and not to the number of bolts holding the third member to the axle housing. Note that on this page, Corporate X-bolt means ISUZU Corporate X-bolt, and not a GM Corporate X-bolt.

The Dana 44 is not an Isuzu-manufactured axle, and we don't have a lot of information on it yet. Most products made for other Dana 44s (Jeep, Ford, etc.) should work for the Isuzu Dana 44, as well.

General Applications Across Models and Years

8-bolt corporate differential (??-spline axles)

Front differential on pre-2/88 Troopers and Luvs

10-bolt corporate differential (17- spline axles)

Front differential on all late model trucks (American AND Japanese-assembled trucks)

Rear differential on pre-2/88 Troopers and Luvs

Rear differential on certain late model trucks with rear drum brakes.

12-bolt corporate differential (26-spline axles)

Rear differential on any Japanese-assembled truck with disk brakes

Dana 44

Rear differential on any America-assembled truck

Hollander Crossreferences

Below, the lines are grouped according to what Hollander says will interchange. According to Hollander, the 89 Amigo front differential would interchange with a 94 Passport but not a 93 Rodeo.

FRONT

Trooper 84-1/88 Front

 

Amigo 89-92 Front

P'up 88-92 Front

Rodeo 91-92 Front

Trooper 2/88-10/92 Front

 

Acura SLX 96-97 Front

Amigo 93-94 Front

P'up 93-94 Front

Passport 94-97

Rodeo 93-97 Front

Trooper 11/92-98 Front

 

 

REAR

Trooper 84-85 Rear

Trooper 86-87 Rear Locking

 

P'up 88 rear axle through 1/88 with drum brakes

Trooper 86-87 Rear non-locking

Notes:
What's this locking/non-locking business? Dunno for sure. Odds are that it is Hollander's nomenclature for the Isuzu Limited Slip Differentials (LSD) that certain rare trucks came with. No one that I've talked to has ever seen a factory-locking differential for these trucks. I'm not honestly sure that is what Hollander is talking about when the say "rear locking," but that's my best guess.

My guess is that when you factor out the antilock brake differences (tone ring, sensor, etc), this list of interchanges will match the one above in General Applications. Thus, in the example I cited above, with the 89 Amigo front differential that Hollander said would interchange with a 94 Passport but not a 93 Rodeo, my guess is that the 89 differential WOULD interchange with one from a 93 Rodeo - and vice versa. You just might not retain the anti-lock braking functionality.

If you find any exceptions, I'd love to hear of them, so please email me at randii@off-road.com.

SWAPPING -- What Will Work?

Well, first keep in mind that if you have anti-lock brakes and want to keep them, you need to find a donor truck with antilock, as well. Also remember that you need the front and rear gears to be within 2% of each other if you ever want to engage 4x4 and not destroy expensive drivetrain parts.

You should be able to swap any differential for another if it has the same number of ring gear bolts, regardless of whether it originally came in the front or the rear. Since 8-bolts were only available in the font, and 12-bolts were only in the rear, they are pretty simple. But 10-bolts seem to be universal - they all use the same 17-spline sidegears. I say this after test-fitting an actual 17-splined axle into 20-25 front AND rear 10-bolt differentials at the junkyard.

Lockers

ARB Air Locker
ARB currently only makes air lockers for the Dana 44 and Isuzu Corporate 12-bolt, more on this soon

TrueTrack Detroit Locker
Works only on the Dana 44, more on this soon

TrueTrack Easy-Locker and Gearless Locker
Currently only applications for the Dana 44, but there may be some exciting developments on this soon - wouldn't it be cool to have Gearless Lockers for 10-bolt and 12-bolt Isuzu corporate differentials?

Limited-Slip Differentials

Let's get to the bottom of this...

As for crossfitting lockers, there's been scads of "I heard that...." and "I wonder if..." floating around -- I'm looking to get to the bottom of this. If you have hard anecdotal evidence (i.e "I did it and it worked for me."_ please email me at randii@off-road.com and I'll add you experiences. If you know somebody who has done it -- cool, send me their email, or there name and phone number. I'll post more here as I know more.

Proven crossfits include:

1. So far, I can only verify that a 10-bolt rear locker from a pre-2/88 Trooper fits into an 88 front differential and works.

If you haven't checked it out already, you should also check out the Isuzu Trooper Owners Guild (ITOG) University at http://www.itog.com/x-iu.shtml. There's a growing collection of FAQ information there.