well thru much local opposition and thanks to the HAMB I got my front hubs redrilled on my 49 f1 from a 5 X 5.5 to 5 X 4.5 all done at home except the back of the hubs had to be machined down to allow the head of the stud to sit flush and a pilot bushing made up for a sum of 17.00 CA for the machine work, 15.00 for some shipping on a trade with 4t64rd for some adaptors that I used for a jig thing, 19.61 for a drill bit (19/32) I am still going to be using the adaptors on the rear for now so for 51.61 I think I came out ahead in so far as having something I like rather than something I could "live with" + I got all the stuff to do the backs now if and when I change out the rearend and keeping the bolt pattern the same on all 4 corners, I still may end up purchasing 1 5 X 4.75 adaptor and redo my spare hubs, depends on the rearend I get I can see some sort of light at the end of the tunnel in so far as being mobile and no frills
can you post a little more explination and maybe a pic for me? on my 66 f100 i have 5x4.5 on the front (mustang2) and the stock 5x5.5 on the rear, and i wanted to change the back to 4.5 pics would be much appreciated
[ QUOTE ] and i wanted to change the back to 4.5 [/ QUOTE ] Changing the rear from 5.5 to 4.5 is fairly easy.. There is a enough metal to redrill your present axles to the SMALLER pattern. Any decent machine shop can do this. OR send the axles and brake drums to Moser or one of the axle narrowing places and have them redrilled.....if you live in a small out of the way place with NO decent machine shop. OR if you like junk yard hunting I have a friend who put 65 or 66 Ford passenger car axles. backing plates and drums on his 66 F100. He found some with the big bearings (like a pickup has) and just switched in two axles from the left sides. The F100 axles are 30 inches long. He used 2 axles from the 65 -66 Fords (two donor rears needed.....................you only get one axle from each housing .... The LEFT one........C5AZ4234H..... Thesee axles are about 3/8 of a inch shorter...........he has run them for years with a 460 Ford and a C6 with NO problems. The big bearing rears have 7/16 bolts holding the backing plates to the housing. Small bearing uses 3/8. Hope this helps.................and was not too confusing
I'll take a couple pictures when I get back outside and a better explanation as well the local machine shop wouldn't drill mine but he did make me a bushing for a 1/4" drill bit and trimmed some of the meat off the back so the head of the studs would seat flush on the hub I knocked the studs out of the adaptor and bolted it to the hub with the 5 x 5.5 holes, clamped the hub in the drill press vise, dropped in my 1/4" bushing and linedup each hole and drilled the 1/4's on each hub then removed the adaptors to find center on each hole for the next drilling I'd put in the drill bit I wanted to drill the hole and bring the bit to the smaller hole and lightly put some pressure on it and with the other hand I would turn the bit backwards til it centered then power up and drill it out I kept drilling the holes 4 different times til I got the final ones 19/32" then I bolted on the brake drums and drilled the drum and the hub at the same time the 19/32 is a real tight fit for the splines on the studs so a few good smacks with a hammer seated them nice and tight the 19/32 bit is the one I had to use for the studs off my 49 f1 other studs might be different so just get the holes your studs came out of miked for size, I didn't use the stud as a measurement cause then I would have drilled a hole that would have been sloppy fit for the stud due to the splines being the high points for a measurement the machinist was quite pleased that prior to me bringing down the hubs for machining I took the time to remove the seals, bearings, races and scrubbing the hubs in varsol so he had something nice and clean to work with and he had to spend no time in prepping, might be why it only cost me 17.00? I drilled all the holes on my little 8" craftsman bench drill press and everything came out pretty good, and it went back together fine, when I spun the tires on the new bolt pattern by eye I could see the tread of the tire looked out slightly so I broke out my ancient dial indicator and put it touching the rim and that needle barely even twitchs so I am pretty pleased I'll pull one of the hubs off and take some pictures I got the idea from Trinary's tech post http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=200629&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1 :
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