The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop 46 Pickup on S10 Frame - Wheel Spacers?

Hi!

I am looking at purchasing a 46 1/2 ton project that is sitting on an S10 frame. The tires on both the front and back rub terribly, even with wheel spacers.

Are there special wheels that I should look for to fix this? The first thing I'm trying to do is get this thing rolling so that it is more mobile.

Thank you all for any advice you may be able to give to me.

There are a few members here that have done this.46GMC comes to mind.Maybe he will stop in and give some info.I know he does have 3-1/2" back spacing and 10" wheels.You might need to give more info as to where the tires are rubbing.( inside on frame,on top against the fenders)

Shaper is correct, my 46 is on an S-10 frame. Without knowing where your tires are rubbing, it's impossible to help. It also depends how the truck sits (where the body was mounted on the frame and if the suspension was lowered) Chances are the backspacing of the wheels is all wrong. I custom ordered my wheels, so I'm running 15x8" on the front with 3-1/2" backspace. I have no rubbing issues at full lock either direction.

I've got 15x10" in the rear, but we tubbed it and I actually have room for larger wheels if I wanted.

If you can give us some more info and some pics maybe we can help determine the issue.

You'll probably need to measure the truck and purchase wheels accordingly for what you need.

Just remember, major offsets of the wheels or excessively thick spacers/wheel adapters will alter the scrub radius dimension, which an lead to potential handling issues.

On these old trucks with an S-10 frame, you won't fit a wheel with enough negative offset to negatively affect the handling that much. Mine handles like it's on rails. In fact, if you read up on scrub radius, moving the wheels out makes it easier to steer in parking lots.

The below link is an image of a truck that was very competitive in Goodguys Autocross (it now has a scout body on the same chassis, wheels included). I guess his handling wasn't negatively affected by those deep dish wheels.

47 Chevy Autocross Truck

This truck is also on an S-10 frame. The rear suspension was modified, but the front is S-10.

True, positive scrub does make for easier steering in a parking lot. But negative scrub is more stable, particularly during braking. Getting as close to 0 scrub as you can is the ideal setup.

Ideal, sure. But for many years cars were made with positive scrub. I wouldn't be advising against it, unless in extreme situations. Unless you're running 12" wheels with 3" backspace on the front, your scrub won't change enough to make a noticable difference. My front wheels are 15x8" with a 3.5" backspace, so they're almost centered. Sure, there's lots of lip, but there's almost as much on the back.

I was actually reading that zero scrub is not the best setup, as then your tires don't really roll, as they're designed to. Look at all modern vehicles, I don't think any have zero scrub.

Modern vehicles run negative scrub.

Exactly. Assuming the engineers know what they're doing, this negates the comment that "Getting as close to 0 scrub as you can is the ideal setup."

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for the replies. I would really like to get this truck looking stock at the wheels, so I am not sure what the correct tire size would be.

I know that the S10 axle is several inches narrower than the regular '46 axle, so I assume I will have some spacers, then some wheels with a specific offset.

What was the stock wheel and tire size for these '46 pickups, and has anyone tried to replicate that look on an S10 frame?

Thanks!

Oh - and for clarification, my rear tires are rubbing the insides of the bed . . . and I have 1.5 inch spacers. I think the tires are too large. Trying to figure out the correct combination of spacers and wheels/tires . . .

The original tires are very narrow, mine are 600 x 16.

On the rear, inside rim to rim is 54 1/2. Box is 48 1/2". My tires are 600 x 16 with 4" wide rims. On my stock 41.

On the s10 conversion you can use a 4 wheel drive rear end, it is wider than the 2wd.

I can measure both 2wd and 4wd unless you already know what you have. I have both and easy to measure. Dave

I used a rear end out of an explorer on my s10 frame swap, its about 59.5" wide, The spring perches are about .5" wider than the s10's, some people say it will sill fit on the leafs as is, but I elongated the center hole a little on both sides so it wouldnt be trying to spread the leaf springs side ways. You will need a u joint adaptor flange if your using the s10 drive shaft, also ford bolt pattern wheels.

Theres a lot of info on the swap if you google s10 8.8 rear end swap, some even re drill axel flange for chevy wheel.

I think that kind of defeats the purpose of the frame swap, IMO. All of a sudden you have mismatched bolt patterns, mismatched brakes, and you have to mess around to get a U-Joint in there.

If I wanted a wider rear diff, I would go with the 4WD S-10, it's 4" wider.

I see what your saying, it fit my application because I didn't have a drive shaft or wheels yet, I ended up putting spacers on the front wheels so I got billet spacers that converted the bolt pattern to ford so all four wheels will have the same bolt pattern. The drive shaft still needs to be made up so I'll have the correct ends on it from the get go too. I do like the ford 8.8 rear over the 4x4 7.5" s10 rear because its a lot more stout; has bigger axles over the s10 rear, easy to find with disc brakes, and the junk yard is full of them so I was able to find one with the ratio I wanted with limited slip. I know there is the 8.5" 10 bolt chevy s10 rears out there that are suppose to be pretty strong, but I couldn't find one, I was starting to think they were a myth!

what kind of truck is your 46 half ton, chevy, gmc, international or what

some interesting read on early chevy's data on 46 chevy half ton............enjoy