I've heard about a relatively bolt-on parts bin exercise that allows widening the track of a Toyota live-axle truck by about three inches. It sounded pretty easy, but I wanted to be sure, myself. Many people have adapted the late-model Landcruiser vented rotors and IFS calipers to the live axle setup, but I had not actually talked to anyone who had swapped in the IFS hub assembly, as well.

Jon Bundrant, of All-Pro Offroad, was gracious enough to allow me to dig through his spare parts pile (he does frequent IFS-to-live axle conversions for customers, so had plenty of parts). The discussion that follows is taken from that pieces-n-parts session and subsequent conversations with Jon Bundrant and Marlin "Crawler" Czajkowski. The conclusions are *MINE*, and as always, YMMV.

IFS and live axle trucks use the same bearings sandwiched between different spindles and hubs. The locking hubs are different, but have the same footprint where they actually bolt to the hub. Thus, it is possible to put an IFS hub on a live-axle spindle and run a live-axle locking hub. This bolts up easily with all the drivetrain - the Birfield and all the retaining clips remain the same, all the same hardware is used except for the hub that the rotor bolts to. Externally, the only obvious difference is the location of the rotor flange (and its bolt pattern): on the IFS hubs, it is further outboard.

If you use all live-axle parts but include the IFS rotor hub, and then use the late-model Landcruiser vented rotors and IFS calipers, there are a few issues:

1. Stock calipers bolt to the inboard side of the threaded axle flange (note that the bolt heads are on the inboard side of the caliper, that the caliper holes are NOT threaded, and that the axle flange IS threaded). The IFS caliper lines up close to the OUTSIDE of the live axle mounting flange. You cannot attach the caliper with these threads because the bolt head would be outboard and you can't fit the bolt past the rotor. Suggested solutions are to drill out the existing flange threads and Helicoil or tap the caliper to receive a larger bolt. There is plenty of meat there for the machining, but this seems a large amount of work.
2. The IFS caliper lines up close to the outside of the live axle mounting flange, but isn't quite centered over the rotor. If you somehow attach the IFS caliper to the outside of the live axle mounting flange, you'd still need to shim the caliper further outboard for optimum brake pad wear. The four-pot caliper is self aligning, but you wouldn't be able to use all the thickness of the inboard brakepad without hyperextending the inner pistons.
3. Attaching the late-model Landcruiser vented rotors to the IFS hub is problematic if you have the 79 through early 80's live axle hub (used short studs). This hub has alternating lug and rotor-hub attachment holes. If you put lug studs through the rotor and hub (similar to what they did on the early '80 through '85 hubs with long studs), you'd be sandwiching an empty air space (where the short lug head used to sit between the rotor and the hub). With the cruddy metal from which rotors are cast, this isn't a very strong setup.

There were two types of live axle hubs used, one with long studs and one with short studs:

• 8/79 through early 8/80 pickup, 8/75 through 8/80 LC: short lug studs clamp wheel to hub (not rotor), rotor held to hub by 6 rotor-hub bolts
• 8/80 through 85 pickup, 8/80 through 89 Land Cruiser: long lug studs clamp wheel hub, rotor, and wheel, rotor held to hub by lug studs and 2 small rotor-hub bolts

Toyota switched to IFS suspension in 86. Obviously there were MANY differences between IFS and live axle, but the actual locking hub, lugs, hub, brake, and bearing assembly was pretty similar. The bearings are the same, and Toyota used the same model as the