The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Tons 'o Fun Eaton hubs on 14 bolt axle

I just made the discovery that the Eaton hub will work on the 14 bolt axle.

I was trying to come up with a way to use the original drum and park brakes on a 67" 14 bolt axle. I was using dually hubs and comparing brake drums. The dually hubs put everything 1/4-3/8 in too far.

Oh a whim I pulled the Eaton hubs off and low and behold they work! They put the WMS out 7/16". Right now it looks as though the original backing plates and drums will work with the 14 bolt! No fabrication needed! It will make the 14 bolt about 63.5-64" WMS, but it'll still make a good swap into an early rig.

I'll update more later.

Chris

www.photobucket.com/whitedog76pics

If this works out it would make a realy nice tech tip. So many of us are searching for rear drums for our old Huck sertup.

I'm planning on using the original brakes on a newer 14 bolt axle. So, I don't know how much of an upgrade that'll be. Keeping the stock hubs and drums would be the real upgrade from the hucks.

You could maybe do the reverse of what I'm doing. Use the 14 bolt drum and put a spacer behind the backing plate on the Eaton axle. Or even using a 14 bolt dually hub and the 3/4 ton drum may be an option. I may check into that while I'm at it.

Chris

I wish I could use his computer better.
But if you go to the Pirate4x4 site and do some real marathon reading, you will find that 14 bolt axel will take a eaton dualy hub BUT you need a DIFFERANT outer bearing, Witch is out there. The reverse swap needs to have the Eaton outer spindle machined to the correct size to work with the 14b outer bearing. I have the links that only eluded to this,but I looked up the numbers on the bearings and the bearing to put Eaton on a bolt is there, and that will give you a gear range that will let you go TO fast for the HUCKS brakes and kill the useability of the truck. I was looking at this swap to get away from the hi price of bearings and no new gears, and re-setting them due to wear is a pain. A 4.10 is far better ratio for my 46 1 ton and is about as far as I would go. The 14b has more options and cheaper.

T-RUCK; After I read your post, it prompted me to do some research on my own. I searched the Pirate site along with a few others and came up with nill. So, I went out and measured the Axle stubs on my Eaton and on my 14 bolt. For all purposes, they are identical. The thick area on the 14 bolt extends out further than the Eaton, but tapers down well before it gets to where the outer bearing rides. I'm sure it's just for added strength.

After that, I went to Timkens website and looked up the engineering specs for the bearings. First off, the seal is the same. Secondly, the inner bearing is almost identical, but the Eaton takes a 3.7" race instead of 3.81". As far as the outer bearing goes, The 14 bolt has a 3.25" race and the Eaton is 3.54. The Eaton bearing is also .07 thinner.

All in all I don't see why the hubs aren't 100% completely interchangable. There's nothing I see that would show me otherwise. The contact area on the stubs are the same, the shaft I.D. is the same, the seal is the same. The .07" difference in the outer bearing can easily be taken up with adjusting nut. Looks like a direct fit to me.

Chris