I am wanting to put a 9" under my 54 panel tired of going thru axles/bearings on my 12 bolt... i want to change the axle bolt pattern from 5-1/2 on 5 to 4-3/4 on 5 ... I want to do this right the 1st time so I think a jig that will let me drill it without any mistakes... I see that Rotten Leonards jigs look like the way to go... My question is rather than buying one from him at a cost 0f 107.00 is there anyone out there that has one of these in the size I need who will sell a used one for less or would rent one to me as its only going to be used for 2 axles collect dust...Any help would be appreciated...
that wont work for me I tow a travel trailer at times, also in the fall/winter I cut wood so there is alot of weight on the car axle so going to a heavy duty 9" will solve it... Thanks for the reply
I've done this several times for race cars. I draw the bolt pattern I want in cad. I make sure to get a good measurement for the raised part on the center of the axle flange. Print it out using a plotter. Don't use a printer, because printers distort about 1 1/2% to the long end of the paper. Then I glue the paper pattern to a piece of 1/8 alum. Using a center punch I mark and drill 1/8" pilot holes for the wheel stud locations and the center. Then I use the closest hole saw size, smaller than the center hole, to rough in the center hole. I then fine tune the center hole size with a die grinder. I take the table off my drill press and drop the axle down through the clamp. If the clamp wont clamp tight due to axle diameter being smaller diameter than table mount I wrap the axle with some thin sheet aluminum(.025, .030). Then rotate it around until you get where you need to drill the holes in the right place, using the 1/8" holes as a guide. Go slow, use good hardened bits or full carbide bits since the axle flanges are so hard. If you are careful it works fine. Never had a vibration or out of round situation doing it this way. cost me about $0 for the material since I used scrap. I did have to buy the carbide drill bits. Let me know if you need me to explain more.
All you need is a 10 hole template cut at the required PCDs. About $15 from a Laser Cutter [they can CAD it for you] and the holes are dead accurate [even the size of them] Get 5 holes slightly larger than the original stud so the original lug nuts will centre it, and 5 holes pilot drill size Use a floor mounted drill press with a vice ,but rotate the table 90 degrees to clamp the axle vertically
Here ya go... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/drill-guides-to-change-wheel-lug-patterns.659626/
Take your axles and a good brake drum to your local machine shop. The machinist will use/refer to the brake drum for his measurements and set up. -It is easier to refer/measure off of a known unit rather than blindly doing the math and/or set up. Having the drum as a reference will save the machinist time and you money. Any good machine shop can pilot accurate holes for about an hours labor. I converted Lincoln rear disc brake rotors to Truck bolt pattern. In my case, I took a Lincoln Rotors and had them re-drilled to F150 bolt pattern/axles. What I ended up with was a set of big Lincoln 9" rear disc brakes on my skinny bronco housing that fits nicely underneath any 30's Ford while retaining the original (Model A on up) bolt pattern. .
I looked at all the advise and went ahead and got the jig from rotten Leonard, I think this is the best/easiest way to go... Thanks to all that had posted with suggestions...
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