Hey guys I have a 72 camaro rear end on my 46 chevy rat truck. Looking to swap out the spindles from 6 lug to 5 lug any kits or help. I don't want disc brake conversion . I want to keep as many original front end parts as I can . But I would like to run the same pattern all the way around 5x 4.75 thanks in advance
You could probably keep your existing spindles, and use the brakes from a 51-59 truck, with the hubs/drums from a 51-54 car. Might need to do a little adapting with the bolts/spacers that attach the backing plate to the spindle, might need to reuse part of your old wheel bearings, but it should work, I've seen it done a few times, but don't recall the details. and you'll do better here if you don't mention rodents, some guys have a phobia about the word
I don't know if cars and trucks are the same but on 40's 6 lug car hubs, you could use 49-54 chevy drums by using the inner bearings from the 40's car and outter bearings from the 49-54 car and get 5 lug 4 3/4" bolt pattern.. At least I think.. It's been 30 years since I did it........
1950 and older use the huck brakes, 51 and newer use the Bendix style brakes, which work better. The drums are different.
Previous owner of my 46 truck swapped to the Bendix style brakes, 5x4.75 pattern. I noticed the drum widths were different. What are the differences between the 2 styles of drums, kinda figured they were from different model years.
If you don't change your front brakes, and still use the Huck brakes, you can bolt on the 49/50 Chev drums; which is what we did on my daughters 36 Chev PU. That would fix your problem. If you decide to update the front brakes, but still want to use drums, then use the 51-54 Chev fronts like squirrel mentioned.
The Bendix type brakes take less pedal pressure and having one adjuster instead of Huck's two makes adjustment easier. But Bendix brakes don't stop any better than Huck if you have a strong leg. However,my experience with swapping rear axles;Bendix in the back and Huck's in the from caused rear wheel lock up...This may or may not be a problem depending on the vehicle etc.
Squirrel hit the nail on the head. Be sure to keep the spacers that go between the backing plates and spindles from the 51 - 59 truck. They will be what you need.
ok so lemme get this straight to run 5x4.75 on the front i need .51-54 front hub and drum from chevy car .
If you are keeping the original 46 front brakes, you need 49-50 car hubs and drums, but if you're changing the front brakes to the 51-59 truck type brakes, then you'd need 51-54 car hubs and drums. Napa won't have the hubs.
I'm just going to clarify what squirrel said. If you are changing the front brakes to the 51-59 type brakes, you will need the 51-54 car hubs and drums; plus the 51-59 truck type backing plates, with the all the Bendix pieces. Going this way, you will not use any of your original front brake pieces, just the spindles.
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