I e got a 61 Chevy C20 wanna keep factory rear end will switch out 4.57 gears but wanna change axles so I can get to a 5 lug. Any tips and sources for axles? Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You can't it's the full floating hubs that are 8 lugs there were no 5 lug ones Sent from my SM-G965U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Yup this is correct. Guess you could cut the housing ends off and replace them with car or 1/2 ton truck housing ends and then get custom axles made to fit. Other option would be to keep the floaters and re-drill the flanges. I would imagine that you would then have to get custom wheels made with the proper clearance for the axle ends and the proper bolt circle. Probably find something in the roundy round world. Here is something to think about. Back when the hard core dragster guys (think door slammer here) were using a spicer 60 for a rear they just ran steelies on the rear. If it is wheel choice there is nothing in the world wrong with a reversed steely on a truck.
I took the easy way out on my 66 Suburban when I did a front disc brake swap, I called Moser Engineering and had them send a pair of new stock replacement axles with 5 on 5" bolt pattern. Then a year later I had Dutchman narrow the housing 12 inches and shorten and respline the axles. http://www.moserengineering.com
All jokes aside you can't get there from here with that rear axle. If you are wanting 5 on 4-3/4 to match 49/54 car hubs on the front there isn't room enough for the lugs to clear the hub. I went out and measure a 3/4 ton axle I have out of a 72 and the hub is 4-1/2 inches in diameter meaning that the hole in the wheel has to be 4-1/2 inches in diameter + to fit over it. That probably leaves the only 5 lugs wheels that would possibly fit being Ford pickup wheels. It just isn't practical to try and use 5 lug wheels on that axle. You would have to have one off custom and very expensive axles made to be able to cut the ends off the axle housing and weld Ford 9 inch ends on (easiest to get) but the expense would be unreal when it all said and done. It would be a whole lot easier and less expensive in the long run to have Moser, Dutchman or Curry build you a 9 inch Ford rear with the desired gears, wms to wms width and bolt pattern.
and, that gm commercial axle had very little to offer for higher gear sets. 411 is about it as i remember
Rodluver, What are you trying to accomplish? You can get to a 5 lug using your axle as a starting point, but why? If you want 5 lug wheels and retain the strength a 3/4 ton axle bearing you need NASCAR style hubs. These have 2 1/2" axle snouts and full floating hubs. Hubs are generally 5 on 5" BC. Still have to have custom axles made, about $500. I have a Quickchange with this hub set up in my shop truck. Uses 31 spline axles.(Around $100 ea. brand new) By the way, I used Stock Car front hubs on 3/4 ton spindles. Bearings had to be honed .001". 5 lug front and rear no sacrifice in strength.
What you could do is get the spindles and brakes off of a 72 or newer half ton with 5 on 5 bolt pattern along with the rear axle and you would be set the later spindles will fit the earlier independent suspension trucks Sent from my SM-G965U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Oh I thought they were I helped a friend do a 64 with 78 spindles Sent from my SM-G965U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
60/62 had torsion bar front ends. Kind of the orphan Chevy truck of the bunch. Later (73 and up rear axles are too wide for that truck so that won't work. Classic parts sells a set of rear axle seats to weld to the axle that have the right angles to use with the truck bars. https://www.classicparts.com/1960-72-Weld-On-Rear-Axle-Seats/productinfo/93-319/ That would save some work.
Now this is getting interesting... I have a Franklin out of a ol' drag truck that has the wide 5, What kinda loot Ya looking at to get into these hub's?
There should be enough meat in a stock hub to turn it down in a lathe, along with the axle flange, to fit a 5-on-5-1/2" wheel register hole (possibly 5-on-5"). A vertical mill with and end mill and sport facer take care of making positions for the studs. Socket head cap screws replace the hex bolts for the axle flange. If I remember correctly, that bolt pattern is 8-on-3.96". Let's call it 4". If 1/8" is maintained around the outside of the bolts (enough for a cap screw head), that makes the hub 4-1/4". A typical aftermarket wheel has a center bore of 108.71mm (US Wheel), which is 4.2799. It's machine work, and a handful of parts. Much the same can be done on the front. It is all up to what the machine shop charges. If enough hub is left at the original diameter to locate the drums, the can be bolted down by threading the original lug holes, and using fasteners that clear the wheels.
Never thought about it like that, But I sure am going to now.... God Hate's a coward... Thanx for breaking down!
it looks to me like it has billet steel hubs...but maybe I'm seeing things? Anyways, I doubt our intrepid OP was thinking of dropping that much dough at a machine shop. I also think he probably didn't know before he got the truck, what the many differences are between a C10 and a C20.
If I remember right that is a HO 72 rear by Hollander exchange. The HO 52 chunk will also swap in it. I did a disk break swap years ago on a 1951 one ton. Now for a possible cheaper way. The frankland wide five hubs will bolt on your rear stubs to the rear. I also have a set of grand national floater hubs bearings etc that are 5x5 that we’re also on that same rear end at one time.(as in the quick change that I put wide fives back on. ) Got the axle tubes also. The stubs on the housing will possibly have to be shorted and rethread the ends or get a pair that bolt on from speed way.(bolts to the original backing plate hole but figure you will have to cut the snout off. Yep you are still gonna have to get a set of double splined axles and drive plates but that part is easy to find used. Those are getting cheap now that all the new qc are so light.Squirrel is right in that it depends on how cheap your machinest works. I got the hubs and even the axle tubes if you want. I’ll damn near give them away. Shipping is gonna be a bitch. The axle tubes are about 30 long and they are steel. Black bird makes a disk brake bracket that works on that rear end. For the record the late 14bolt backing plate pattern is the same Because Black Bird interprisses sent me a set and said they would fit. And they did. But that was for the big 8 hole rotor. Best of luck. I even converted the stock 8 hole axle to disk as well but that was an I beam so that info is of no use.
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