Safety Racing Hubs on Buick Drums

I am finally getting ready to start on my project and I have questions about how to install my SafetyRacing Wide-5 Hubs onto a traditional 9" rear. (have regular Ford wide-5 and juice backing plates for front)
I have the 12" aluminum buick drums. I do not have backing plates or brakes. My questions are:
1) Can I scavange a set of backing plates off of an old buick then have the correct ends welded on the 9" rear so the backing plates match up?
2) How in the devil does a floating axle work? Can I use a floating axle in a regular 9" rear so that these hubs (once mounted) will work?

thank you in advance for any advice.
r/Ryan

 

I am trying to picture how you would use Buick drums with a wide 5 setup.

A 9" ford can be converted to a floater by using the proper floating reard end pieces, i think you end up welding a new bearing cup on the end of the axle housing. It wuld help if I could see what you already have.

To adapt 12" buick brakes to the 9" rear I am sure that you can get new housing ends from a company like Strange or you can do what I have done, drill the Buick backing plate to match the housing ends and then you have to space the backing plate out to match the stand off distance of the ford axles. You also have to machine a ring to go over the ford axle register because the buick register is bigger then the ford. Helps to be a machinist.

 

There is no easy nor the cheap way to do this conversion.

First you will have to adapt the hubs to the housing. It might be easiest to find a set of old style bolt on wide 5 spindle adapters and redrill to match the Ford axle snout pattern, welding new snouts on would be easier but they must be perfectly true to eliminate axle or bearing failure.
For brake backing plates you need to scour the used race car web sites and find a set of used open backing plates made for this application by Frankland or Safety Racing, They use 12" x 2.5 shoes. You can also use modified 12" Ford truck backing plates or Buicks if you can find them.

For axles you will have to have them specially made for the width of your rear or you can check the Used race parts stores in Mooresville NC, for used Nascar axles with the length and spline count you need for your differential. You will need to make a drive plate to match the 8 bolt pattern of your hub and then to a spline that matches the outer count on the axles.

This is just a quick way to addres this I'm sure there are other ways.

 

Thank you ****. That sounds like the trick.

 

You can buy a 9" housing with wide 5 floater snouts installed to your desired width, from any of the "Stock Car" ch***is fabricators. I looked in a Lefthander Ch***is catalog, price is about $380.00. You will then have to fab some backing plate brackets and weld them on, they also sell drive flanges and axles as well. Which Safety Racing hubs do you have? Post some pics if you can.

 

Wilson Welding, Flower Mound Texas has the backing plates that you need. They may be able to help you with the rest of your conversion. Try their web site.