Anyone know if there is enuff meat on a Ford 9" axle w/ the 5 on 4-1/2" bolt circle to be redrilled to the 5 on 5" Chevy full-sized bolt circle?
As a general rule........NO...... but some take a chance and do it .... Some of the earlier Fords ( 57 upwards ) were larger than the one shown. I would just go ahead and buy a set of axles......from Moser or one of those guys......with the pattern you want......The one shown is 4.5 and 5.0 is 1/2 of a inch larger so the studs would move out 250 thousands...
Lincoln, and some Fords and Mercurys had that bolt pattern from the factory. So get the axles out of a big old 70's Lincoln Towncar, and have them shortened to fit your rearend. Bonus, if they arent 31 spline to begin with, when you shorten them, they are big enough to cut 31 splines.
Yea, a couple years ago I came across a Lincoln running Buick wheels. Confused the Hell outta me as I had no idea at the time that FoMoCo had used the 5" bolt pattern on anything. Now I wish I had grabbed the rear before the junkman sent it over the scales!
YES there is enough for a 5 x 5 pattern. I am running a 57 ford 9" in my A, and redrilled using the 5 on 5 pattern so I could run some 54 pontiac rims. where you run into trouble is doing the 5 on 5 1/2.
20 years ago I built this car with an 8" Ford rear end. I redrilled the axles to the 5" BC for some Buick wires that I had, but I didn't use them. So I left it 5" anyway. I took the rear end out about 5 years ago and put in a 57 wagon 9" and redrilled it too. I have the 8" setting in my driveway to be put in another car. I will try to take some pictures of it later today.
You can also find them in 70-72 T-Bird's. I have one that I use in my GM Demo cars to match the Gm 5 on 5 pattern on the front so that I only have to run with one set of extra wheels.
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