The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 3/4 to 1/2 ton question

I am working on a project for a friend and he wants certain wheels on his truck we are going to put together and they are 6 lug and the truck is 8 lug, my question is, can I change axels and hubs or is it going to be the entire axel and everthing to the spindles.

year and make?

You'll have to change out the entire rear axle to get rid of the full floating hubs.
You can also fit up 1/2 ton spindles to the front 3/4 ton axle if it's a straight axle.

As mentioned, year and make would be helpful.

sorry it's a 62 and the doners are a 61 and a 62

'61 and '62 IFS ('60 too) is an almost unique setup and it may be hard to find someone who has all the answers. I'd check part numbers for wheel bearings and ball joints and such to know how much of the front you need to swap. But if you have a 1/2-ton with good suspension parts it may be cheaper and less work to swap the entire IFS crossmember with all the pieces.

I could be wrong, but on the rear if they both use the same suspension type I think you can simply swap the complete axle assemblies. You probably don't want to run the 3/4-ton axle ratio anyway.

I know a lot more about '63 to '87 suspensions, but some of the slightly earlier stuff is very similar.

Where in WA are you?

What kind of wheels are they? If they're aftermarket custom wheels, they might be available in the 8 lug pattern.

To Oldsub I am in Bremerton Wa.

To Longbox55 The wheels are vintage aluminum slots that are on one of the trucks.

Thank you for all you guys information again and again

Todjob, I live on Bainbridge Island and work in Poulsbo. I've been in Bremerton twice since I last posted in this thread. Maybe sometime I can drop by and look at your project?

Hi there. First time guy here and I got a question. I have a 1951 3100. We want to get it on the road this spring and want to change the 6 lug front hubs to a 5 lug hub. Does anyone know what hub will work?

Welcome to the Bolt. There are several ways to go here. New axles, drilling out the hubs, changing rears and rear suspension + other stuff. Someone that has done this will drop by soon.

There's 2 ways to do it. 1, get an aftermarket disk brake conversion, or 2, swap to '49-'54 Passenger car hubs and drums. Personally, I would do the first one. The rear axle would have to be swapped as well to keep it matched, but that makes for a good time to go to open driveline and an overdrive trans.

ole boy, Just find a 53-54 Chevy passenger car and bolt the hubs & drums right on to your truck, no sweat. Not as easy for the rear, you'll need a complete rear end. I'd go a step better though and purchase the kit to swap on 5 lug discs, mucho better than drums.