Hello ! I recently bought an ugly hot rod (had its own thread on here even !) and it's on a nice professionally built 32 frame that I plan on using for a different build and I am trying to figure out what to do about the track width, because it's different front to rear. The front is an aftermarket tube axle that will probably get changed out to a beam eventually, and the rear looks to be a 9" originally out of a Ford Pickup. For some bizarre reason, the rear axle they chose has a wheel mount-to mount width of 65 1/4 " and is 5 on 5 1/2" bolt pattern, while the front is 57" with a 5 on 4 1/2 bolt pattern. Besides using what the owner provided (which is what happened) it blows my mind why they did this. It drives me nuts when wheel lug patterns don't match !!! It's an easy fix, have the rear axles and drums re-drilled , or buy new rotors for the front, but still... The real issue is the track width. they did a nice job installing triangulated 4-bar, and it even has a rear anti-sway bar, fully rebuilt drum brakes and E-brake, and then they powder-coated the entire thing. Talk about doing the wrong thing the right way !! I guess I could order some custom offset wheels ? cut the ends off and narrow the housing and get new axles ? just let the wheels stick out like a cartoon ? What negative effects does non-matching track width have on drivability ?
My friends have a drag car that is way wider in the front than the back and it drives fine we’ll over 100mph. Narrow your rearend if if bothers you. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wider track width in the rear will make the car understeer. That is OK for a drag car but not good for a nose heavy street driven car.
65 or 66 mustang 5 lug axle shafts, they will give you 57.25'' small bearing buy new (cheap) bearing housings like these FIRST CHECK YOUR AXLE FLANGE AND BRAKE OFFSET IS 2.5'' fit them, so as to remove exactly 4 inches per side in your axle case, because these will fit inside the axle tube you have already, you can mock-up / assemble it all and make sure its correct, roll it around 65.25 - 4 PER SIDE = 57.25 2.5'' brake offset - very important then locate some small bearing 10'' brakes in the shoe width of your choice. 1.3/4 - 2'' or 2.5'' 4.5'' pcd
Perhaps the super wide rear track was for super wide rear wheels / tires with nearly zero offset? Still, narrowing the axle and changing the lug pattern / brakes is a no brainer to get everything to match. You have a fairly unique opportunity here when you think about it, in that you can pick your rear wheels / offset / tires while mocking up the body and frame at the same time as you are planning the axle mods. That way when you get the axle narrowed, the look of the rear wheels and the body should be perfect.
Id say it was just to save the cost of having the rear narrowed. Agree with gnichols and others, make it fit the car and build. No need for special offset wheels, set the rear to use off the shelf backsets. Save the powder thats on there and just run a tape line when you repaint the ends. Youd have to get pretty close to ever see it.
An 8.8 out of a Ford Ranger is 58" WMS to WMS and its 5 on 4.5 Cheaper than narrowing the existing rear end and new axles (IMO) but you'll have to redo the 4 bar and e brake, etc.
So, obviously, the classiest way to do it would be to tear the entire thing down and narrow the housing, and have the axles narrowed and re-splined, and figure out brakes. Besides cost, and hassle, and the fact that Dutchman moved from Portland over to the Boise area (and who could blame them?) it makes the most sense to do it right. But..... Whats to stop a guy from doing the easy thing and ordering some 15"x10" steel wheels with a 7.5" backspace ? I mean, if I run 15"x5" on the front with small hubcaps on both, that would look alright wouldn't it ? I hate making extra work and the rear end has new brakes, e brake hooked up with new cables, new brake lines, fresh powder coating, and it doesn't even leak ! If I was starting a build from scratch, I would obviously start with the correct width, but I was hoping to keep this as easy as possible, and it runs & drives now...
Just a point of reference, different , but kinda the same. Ford in the sixties/ seventies produced pickups that had the rear end narrower than the front wheels! Ford Change it to the same width in , I think 1979. They seems to work ok. Bones
This ^^^^ If you want 31 spline with 3.25" axle tubes [and also inherit a disc brake conversion] look at a Ford "Exploder" [1995-2002] They are 59.625" from wheel mounting surface to WMS A cheap way to narrow the explorer rear is to use 2 x LH axles. This narrows it by 2.88" to 56.745" And giving you posi traction / 3.73:1 ratio / 31 spline axles / 5 x 4.5" PCD
65-1/4 inches wms to wms is 70's F 150 width. I have three of them out here. Plus one out of a coil spring Galaxy of some mid 70's year. There is a machine shop 15 miles west of me or about 90 miles from you that narrows axle housings and machines the axle shafts. They do a lot of crawler and drag car work but I haven't caught up with them to get prices from them. I need too get one done for my 48 but I need to sell off some stuff to have some spending money. I'd pawn that straight tube axle off on someone who just had to have it for his wanna be drag car if it were me. Someone has to be way more in love with than you are.
Looking at the body that was on the chassis before, I’d say the PO had. “plan” / “vision “, etc Regardless you have it now
Track width - A three wheeler with the single tire in the front will tip and crash very easily. A three wheeler with the single tire in the back will handle like a wet dream... Mike
I like 8.8"s but not under this car, they are kind of a pain to mount the triangulated 4 bar to. They are good rear ends and plentiful, I have a 98 explorer disk brake 8.8"rear under my '50 Jeepster. I do plan on swapping out the straight tube axle eventually, but it's a 48" axle, and the only one I have on hand right now is one of those 46" forged aluminum beams, and 2" less track width in front would only compound my track width difference, so i'll eventually pick up a 4 or 5" drop 48" wide beam. Mr48chev: could I get the contact info for that machine shop that does axle work up by you ? I have used Dutchman before, but since they moved to Boise, its a bit too far of a drive, and shipping axles and housings gets expensive !! I do make it up hwy 97 into Yakima once in awhile. Whats the general consensus on 10" wheels with a 7.5" backspace? man that would sure be easy........
That’s about the back space on 4th gen Fbodies, shouldn’t cause issues. I think only visual thing would be what you do with the front wheels. I/e if rears look like less inset than the fronts (from a side view) might look a bit off
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