Wheel Spacing

[Litdave]

Hello,

I am new to this group but I have 2 trucks I am working on. I started with a 71 SWB 4WD but wound up with a 69 LWB 2WD when I was out part shopping.

I bought the 69 with intentions of using it for a parts truck but it was in too good of shape to part out so I decided to fix it up and use it as my daily driver.

My question is: Is the front wheel track width (distance between the wheel bolting surfaces) different for my 69 drum brakes and a 71 disc brake frontend?

I know that the rear end is about 1 1/2" wider.

I am going to convert to disc brakes and I am trying to decide what width tires and wheels (5 lug) to buy.

Thanks,

[lolife99]

Stock 8 inch rallys are 15x8 with a 4 inch backspace for your 5 lug pattern. The 71 disc stuff will be just fine. I'm not sure on the track width difference. Lowering might affect your choice of backspacing in order to tuck the rims.

[Litdave]

Thanks lolife99 for the reply.

I thought the 71 stuff would work OK, I was wondering if the disc brake setup is wider than the drum setup which would make my front wheels set out further than the rear.

Stock chevys seem to be set up this way (espically 4WD) and I was going to try to use wider wheels on the back to make the outside of the front tires line up with the outside of the rear tires.

[lolife99]

I don't think the track is as wide as the 4x4 front. I had a '82 2wd Blazer that had 17's on it. It was lowered so the front track gets a little wider because the lower a-arms are flatter. But anyway,... I ran 17x8 on the front with a 5 inch backspace and 17x9.5 with a 4.5 inch back space on the rear. This made the front and back track width about the same. I always run 7 and 8 inch rallys together, when I run stock wheels. Hope this helps.

[Red68]

I recently installed front disc brakes on my 68 and the my front wheels set out farther than they did before, maybe an inch or two. I also lowered it 3 1/2". I already bought new wheels prior to installing the new brakes so now I need spacers in the back to make everything line up.

[Litdave]

Thanks Red68 for the info

That is what I thought would happen. I just measured my truck and the front tires are about 2 1/2" further apart than the back. This is with the original drum brakes and rear end.

If I use 8" wheels on the front and 10" wheels on the back with the same backspacing then my rear tires would be 1 1/2" wider than the front.

It would work out real nice if the disc brakes were 1 1/2" wider than the drums.

Does anybody out there no how much wider the disc are?

Thanks again