I bought this 28 sedan and it has a ford 9 inch under it. It's 63 inches total width, I think it's out of a van, tapered bearings, 31 spline and has 11x2 1/4 rear drums and 5.5 bolt pattern. I'm narrowing it to center the pinion and make it look better, to wide now, and I'm going through the brakes while I'm at it. I'll redrill the axles to 4.5 BP, are there any drums out there that will interchange with the 4.5 BP? I need new drums so if something would interchange, I wouldn't have to drill them too. I was thinking some of the older T birds had the 11 in drums.
1960-68 Ford-Mercury Including Galaxie 11-1/32" X 2-1/2" Rear Brake Drum Part #: 60-34994-1 $85.99 ea.
that won't work, will it? The late 50s T birds might have them, also try things like 59 Ford cars, the smaller Edsels, etc. the pilot (drum center hole) diameter is kind of important, make sure you check that it's the same. and the offset might be different, so check overall height.
The Ford cars and trucks don't have the same center hole diameter, so you won't find a car drum that fits. You can either re-drill your existing drums, or get different axles. If you keep the truck size center hole/hub, you'll have issues finding wheels in the 4.5" BP that will fit the hub.
Is there any reason not to turn down the pilot to fit the car drums? Well, a quick look at a couple 28 spline 5x5.5 axles shows that the recess in the pilot/hub may not leave much meat there. I can't recall if the 31 spline truck axles are flat across there.
It's enough bigger that I think you'd lose it altogether... Most aren't 'solid', there's just a lip to center the drum/wheel.
It had adapters, 5.5 to 4.5 and new american racing wheels and tires. I'll have to check and see how these wheels fit on the axle. Don't think it matters with these wheels but I could be wrong. I'd just like to know what the rear end is out of so I could order parts. I hated to see it had tapered bearings, I found a complete kit with everything on a bronco site but it said for the big bearing. I can redrill the drums if the wheels will work, size is 11x2 1/4 on the drums.
Sounds like a 70s 1/2 ton axle. I would redrill the drums for wheel pattern. Get one of those cheap plastic bolt pattern guides match it to the 5.5 pattern and mark your new pattern. The holes are not that critical the center hole is what locates everything.
That's only true if the wheel you're using is hub-centric, and most custom wheels these days aren't. Plus it's very unlikely you'll find a wheel with the 5.5" size hub on a 4.5" bolt pattern.
If it's a 70's truck rear, which it sounds like, you also have to watch the diameter of the axle where you want to shorten it to. They are a little smaller right after the splines, I had to have a minimum of 4 inches off before there was enough meat to respline. Also is it a 3 1/4" tube? I admit my experience is minimal at best but I found the bigger tube axle more difficult to work with than a 3".
Can't shorten these, 73 up I think it was, they started cutting the size of the axle down. I'll have to buy 1 axle for the side I shorten.
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