Hey I am currently in the process of building a 50 Chevy gasser. I've been doing some reaserch on straight axle front end width and the differences but no luck. I need to know what the width from hub to hub is on a 47-54 and 55-57 Chevy truck and if the 55 front straight axle with work for my 50 coupe. Any answers would be a great help thanks.
The '49 to '54 is 50.5" backing plate to backing plate I believe, not sure about the '55-'57. Click on my link below and you can see what the '49-'54 axle looks like on a tri-five, we used them on the tri-five gassers we built.
http://www.droppedaxles.com/CHEVY_AXLES.html#TXTOBJ7D8154316162C31 The 41-54 is a different width than 55-59. The 41-54 is preffered I believe. I used a 59 truck axle in my 54 car. I don't care if it is wider and I plan to run skinny front tires. I am using a wide rear axle and radiusing the wheel wells.
The '55-'59 truck axle is 1.5" wider than the '49-'54 truck axle. The later also uses true parallel springs, rather than the tapered in springs of the early '50's trucks.
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