There's no real rhyme or reason for me to swap out to Eaton hubs on the 14 bolt. It falls more in the dare to be different category.
I have a 67" axle assembly. I picked up some dually hubs along the way, which would've been a straight forward swap in order to make a 63" axle. I would've needed use some late 80's/early 90's van drums in order to make the whole brake system mesh.
Somewhere along the way I got the idea of rear disc brakes and robbed a setup off of an 07 van.
The early 14 bolt hubs, wouldn't let the rotor slide on, they would need to be pressed on the backside, like the early 14B drums.
So, having an Eaton axle here, I found out that the rotors would go over top of the hub, if you removed the sheet metal oil shield.
The Eaton Spindle is about .010 larger than the 14 bolt, so I thumbed through the Timken catalog and found that the 14 bolt inner bearing can be used with the Eaton bearing race. For the outer bearing I would need Eaton 362 race and 368A bearing.
The seals for the 14B and Eaton are the same, so nothing new needed there.
The "New" axle setup should be around 64-65" WMS, which should fit between the fenders fine. So, if someone can't find a 63" axle, you could always use the Eaton hubs.
One of the biggest advantage to what I'm trying is less rotatating mass. The 14B brake drums weigh 45-50 lbs, whereas a brake rotor is about half of that. The Eaton hubs are smaller also, They probably weigh a few pounds less too. So, in effect, you're losing 20-30 lbs per wheel in rotating mass. That has to account for something.
Chris
