Rear Axel and the tale of woe...

[overtimeracing]

Hey guys... Ive been sandbagging for quite some time now gathering information. You see ive aquired a new project, (wasnt quite finished with the old project yet) but i feel youve gotta jump on an opportunity when it presents its self. My story is this: My buddy and I stumbled on a 402bbc @ the junk yard last winter in an old suburban and bought it pretty cheap. So I needed something to put it in of course. I had bee driving by these old chevy trucks sitting in a guys front yard, they had been there for a while, so i decided to see if they were for sale. One was a 65 sb and the other was a 63 lb. What was good on one was bad on the other.. you see what i mean? Anyways I bought them both, and have put the 63 cab on the 65 sb frame, and sold the other truck. Another buddy of mine was scrapping a 73ish 2wd pick up and gave me the front crossmember and suspension as well as the power steering box. These will be going in shortly. My problem is I dont know what to do with the rear. I would like to get the bolt pattern down to a 5 x 4 1/2 or 4 3/4, as i already have a nice set of Weld Draglights sitting around. So after that long boring story, my question is this: Is there a company that makes axels to fit the stock housing, or should I go with a different rear end? The one that is in there now I believe to be a posi, but I havent opened it up yet to verify. I promised the wife I would build this truck on a budget, and would like to use as many Junk yard/ slightly used parts as possible, but if I need to get axels...oh well. Thank you in advance for all your help. OTR

[tecky11]

axels can just be redrilled to the bolt pattern that you want AND keep the posi!!!!

[62gmc910]

Originally Posted by overtimeracing

Hey guys... Ive been sandbagging for quite some time now gathering information. You see ive aquired a new project, (wasnt quite finished with the old project yet) but i feel youve gotta jump on an opportunity when it presents its self. My story is this: My buddy and I stumbled on a 402bbc @ the junk yard last winter in an old suburban and bought it pretty cheap. So I needed something to put it in of course. I had bee driving by these old chevy trucks sitting in a guys front yard, they had been there for a while, so i decided to see if they were for sale. One was a 65 sb and the other was a 63 lb. What was good on one was bad on the other.. you see what i mean? Anyways I bought them both, and have put the 63 cab on the 65 sb frame, and sold the other truck. Another buddy of mine was scrapping a 73ish 2wd pick up and gave me the front crossmember and suspension as well as the power steering box. These will be going in shortly. My problem is I dont know what to do with the rear. I would like to get the bolt pattern down to a 5 x 4 1/2 or 4 3/4, as i already have a nice set of Weld Draglights sitting around. So after that long boring story, my question is this: Is there a company that makes axels to fit the stock housing, or should I go with a different rear end? The one that is in there now I believe to be a posi, but I havent opened it up yet to verify. I promised the wife I would build this truck on a budget, and would like to use as many Junk yard/ slightly used parts as possible, but if I need to get axels...oh well. Thank you in advance for all your help. OTR

The S10 s15 trucks with 4.3s had big 10 bolts in them 4 3/4 bolt pattern

[overtimeracing]

Thanks for the replies... Is the s10 axel the same width?? How about an 8.8 Ford axel. Ive been running one in my 68 Amc Javelin from an Explorer with good results. I believe they are 60" drum to drum.

[Captainfab]

The '73 or so front suspension you got is going to be 5 x 5 bolt pattern. You can buy aftermarket 5 x 5 axles that will fit the '65 12 bolt. You could order custom aftermarket axles with whatever bolt pattern you want, but they are going to be a bit more $$.

I'm not too sure that a 10 bolt out of a S10 will hold up behind a big block very well. The '63-'69 12 bolts measure 62 1/8" WMS to WMS

[overtimeracing]

Thanks for the info guys... Thats exactly what I was looking for... OTR