The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 8 lug to 5 lug question, keeping it stock.

I'm looking to get rid of the 8 lug on my 3/4 ton and would like to do it on the cheep being a College student. I thought I had read that early 50's Chevy passenger car hubs would slide right on to the Axle/Spindle that I have. I can't find the post out there so the reason I'm asking. thank you for any information you all can provide...

A 3/4 ton has a full floating rear axle. 1/2 tons and passenger have semi floating axles. There is nothing from a passenger car that will interchange on a 3/4 ton rear end.

the trick you are refering to is for 6 lug to 5 lug conversions, and only works on the front.

Why do you want to swap to start with?

I am talking about changing over the front end, not the rear. I have a 9 inch for that already. I want to swap because it's not that easy to find 8 lug rims that will work for it, and the split rims it has on it, nobody will touch them to put new tires on. Would it be possible to get a front axle assembly from a 1/2 and then be able to do what I'm asking to do?

Thanks

I dont have an 8-lug truck, however I remember that the Rim issue has been covered in depth. 8-lug rims are easy to come by. I say, keep it a truck.

I have late 90's Chevy 2500 van wheels on my 64 C20. The only negative is you can't install stock style center caps,. The 70's & 80's 8 lug steel Chevy wheels will look very close to stock, just harder to find.

It is possible to swap the 1/2-ton front axle and then either get 5-lug car hubs from an early 50's Chevy or use a disk kit to switch to 5-lugs.

Unless you redrill the 9-inch hubs you'll have different bolt patterns front and rear.

You will not have a 1-ton truck anymore, and in fact your truck will be heavy enough that you won't be able to stop as much load as a 1/2-ton truck would.

Since its hard to find highway friendly gears for your rear axle I understand changing it, but the 9-inch is a downgrade strength wise and brake wise. Unless you are shortening the truck you are creating a risky situation where it will be easily possible to load the truck beyond what the brakes can safely stop.

Let me pitch going disk brakes on the front, and perhaps the rear too. That may be the best way to increase braking capacity and therefore safety.

Another possible approach might be to swap to a 6-lug 14-bolt rear from a 90's 3/4-ton Chevy pickup, and then use the 1/2-ton front axle with a 6-lug disk brake kit? I think that would produce a safer combination.

Go to my web site www.droppedaxles.com then to Tech Articles. Here is a address to the page http://droppedaxles.com/TECH_ARTICLES.html
Read the spindle article. The 1/2 ton axle will bolt right into the 3/4 ton Chevy. Some GMC 3/4 tons have 2" wide springs and the 1/2 ton has 1-3/4" wide springs. This is a easy fix by moving the holes out with a die grinder by 1/8" each. The 3/4 ton axle has bigger ID king pins than the 1/2 ton. The 3/4 ton spindles have bigger ID bearings than the 1/2 ton. You can use the 49-54 Chevy car backing plates and drums on the 1/2 ton spindles. This will get you the 5 bolt pattern Chevy car wheels (5 on 4-3/4" pattern)

8 lug rims are one of the most easily available rims you can get.... Best of all, they are available in 16 inch which opens the door to tons of tire sizes...

For the money you want to spend doing this, you could go to a junkyard and pickup some nice 8 lug aluminum rims that would really spice up the truck....

And, if you ever need rear-end axle choices, the corporate 14 GM rear end is super common (put in trucks up through 99 or so), comes with MASSIVE drum brakes, and can have axle ratios from the low 3's all the way up to 5.17 and beyond..... Lockers, posi's, you name it.

I say leave it 8 lug.

Hey all thanks you so very much for all the information... I now have many, many options to consider. The 9 inch has already had axles bought for the chevy 5 lug. I also am not planning on loading the truck down and hauling a bunch of weight, but if I do thanks for the ideas of the safety issues (hadn't even thought of that). So now I have some thinking to do and figuring out how I really am going to use my truck... Thanks again, and happy turkey day.

!951 3/4 ton have installed 350 V8 with a 700R4 transmission, changed front axle to 1/2 ton with 6 lugs(stright axle) with disk brakes want to change rear end 8 lug (4.57) to 6 lug (open drive shaft) with a 3.42 ratio. has any one done this and what rear end was used. I know I will have to relocate spring and shock mounts on the new rear. my main concern is the WMS to WMS dimension


Bubbajim

Another option would be to use a rear axle from an '80-'90s Dodge 3/4 ton van. It'll be a Dana 60, and are the proper width to fit under an AD truck. 3.55 gears are very common in them.