Posted by Keith in Washington on Wednesday, January 09, 2002 at 11:20AM :
In Reply to: 6bolt w100 axle swap - Don Evans ? posted by Oscar on Wednesday, January 09, 2002 at 1:11AM :
Set up the axle that you want. There should be no saftey issue between 6 and 8 bolt. The 8 bolt lugs are usually smaller than the 6 bolt lugs. I personally like 5 or 6 bolt setups. I also like full floating axles (like the flatfender PW have) they are much better. Full floating axles take precidence over number of lug bolts. I do not like the axle bearing any load or being the mechanism holding the wheel on, which is what you have in non-full floating axles. Additionally, on full floating axles there are two wheel bearings taking the load instead of one. If you break a rear axle in a full floating axle you can pull out the stub and drive home. I had a differential come apart on me once on a holiday weekend, I simply pulled the rear axles disconnected the drive line, plugged the end of the axle hubs with rags put it in 4 wheel drive and drove the 250 miles home. No way could this be done with a "regular" axle.
As to which axle has better parts availability, I have no clue.