35's and a 12 bolt.

[eedgell]

All of you with 35,s and a 12 bolt rear. How are you holding up? My 12 bolt is starting to whine a little. Might be time to go with the 14 bolt. Honestly, how well should the 12 bolt hold up with 35's, and no hard core 4x4'n?

[1969k10stepside]

I think its ok for a road/show truck but once off roading the 35s are abusing the axles...My shorty k10 has the 35s and 12 bolt rear but it wont see much off roading if any.An occasional wheeling might be ok but if you wheel it alot I would go ahead and upgrade to a 14 bolt now before you break an axle,etc and dont have a truck till it's fixed..

[LonghornJeff]

+1 what he said ^^^^^^^

[special-K]

I think in time a 12-bolt suffers from 12.50/33s and up.33s can work for a long time,but not forever.And,any kind of horse-play takes it`s toll.The 12-bolt is not known as the best 1/2t truck axle between Ford,Dodge,GM.I`m an 8-lug kinda guy and it`s the opposite with our rears.HO52s and 14-bolts have ruled for over 50 years.
Going from 33" to 35" makes a big difference on axle stress since the 12-bolt was at it`s limit with the 30"+ tires already.I think a front Dana44 can take more than a 12-bolt.There are hard axles and c-clip eliminators that help.But,the 12-bolt is best going easy or with street tires,in the long run.If I was staying 6-lug,I`d find a 14-bolt semi-floater.Those are the toughest 1/2t axle IMO.

[pumpkin]

I wheeled a 12 bolt with 35's for 5 years with no problems. I later switched to an Ho 52, that I shaved and redrilled the hubs to 6 bolt so I could keep my mags. I gained half an inch of ground clearance over the 12 bolt with the shave. My only reason for the swapp was to put in the 4.56 with detroit locker I had kicking around.

[snj8198]

I ran 35's with a 12/10 bolt combo in my '79 shorty with supercharged small block. surprisingly the rear held up very well to both on and off road abuse. the front was a different story though. I would not expect this to be the norm, but many run 12 bolt rears with 35's in low traction/ high hp appications like mudding and sand dunning and they seem to survive longer than expected.

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by pumpkin

I wheeled a 12 bolt with 35's for 5 years with no problems. I later switched to an Ho 52, that I shaved and redrilled the hubs to 6 bolt so I could keep my mags. I gained half an inch of ground clearance over the 12 bolt with the shave. My only reason for the swapp was to put in the 4.56 with detroit locker I had kicking around.

HO 52, as in an pre-’73 Eaton full-floater?

That would be interesting to see how a full-floater hub was shaved and redrilled to a 6 lug. The center bearing housing hub is bigger on a full-floater than a center pilot hub on any 6 lug semi-floating axle so I cannot picture how it would fit any 6 lug wheels. Got any pictures? Sounds interesting if not impossible.

[pumpkin]

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

HO 52, as in an pre-’73 Eaton full-floater?

That would be interesting to see how a full-floater hub was shaved and redrilled to a 6 lug. The center bearing housing hub is bigger on a full-floater than a center pilot hub on any 6 lug semi-floating axle so I cannot picture how it would fit any 6 lug wheels. Got any pictures? Sounds interesting if not impossible.

I have pics, but I don't know how to pst them Basicaly I machined the o.d down till the wheels fit over, redrilled for 6 bolt, tapped the holes and bolted rotors to the hub for rear disc brakes. Oh ya it is a full floater

[OLDCHEV4X4]

I wheel the crap out of my 12 bolt with 33-12.50/15's. It has a rebuilt eaton posi and 3:73 gears. So far so good. I twisted 2 rear driveshafts so far.
Mabey the ring gear bolts are coming loose. That happened to me once. I also had the carrier shims kick out.

[Burt4x4]

I had a factory 12bolt in my K5 then I bought new 33" Dunlop Mud Rovers had the 12bolt stuffed with an Auburn Posi & 3.73s..well 1700 bucks and 2 months later I TWISTED the damn rear climbing a hill. Basically part rookie driver part traction.
I have a manual and I was down shifting trying to climb a hill, started in the wrong gear, let the cluch out fast, too fast & lots of go pedel, the front end came off the ground the rear twisted up and uloaded with a BANG!! Driveline put a dent in the floor, axel housing cracked wide open were the tube is pressed into the diff housing, Auburn exploded into many pieces... That damn axel housing was crackin a smile while I was frowning..

So they can be killed

[Chris27]

From what I've seen 12bolt + 35's = . I've seen a few where the housing twisted, and lots of broken axles.

[Twistedsteel]

I'm runnin 35/13.50 on a 12 bolt with 4.56. I just had it rebuilt with a eaton posi because I chewed up my pinion gear and cracked my old carrier in half I have a 14 bolt and dana 60 but I'm just not ready to put them in yet so hopefully the 12 bolt will last a couple years.


Albie

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by pumpkin

I have pics, but I don't know how to pst them Basicaly I machined the o.d down till the wheels fit over, redrilled for 6 bolt, tapped the holes and bolted rotors to the hub for rear disc brakes. Oh ya it is a full floater

When you reply to a post….you will see a little paper clip in the console. Click that then select the file you saved your pictures in. Click upload.

Very curious to see how you machined that much off a full-floating axle shaft and not interfere with the 8 axle shaft bolt holes or get into the hub bearings to shrink it down enough to fit a 6 lug semi-floating wheel pilot hole. Did you have to take some meat out of the pilot hole on the 6 lug wheel too?

Sounds like a cool trick that could save a lot of people $$$ on 8 lug wheels when going to a FF axle.

I saw some other pictures you posted…Nice Blazer by the way!

[pumpkin]

I tried that paperclip thing, but I got a new camera and the files are too big and I don't know how to resize them.

[vegas_k10]

lol i have 38 in swampers on my 77 k10 with 12 bolts and it can take anything i can give it, even in the sand

[CrashEd]

I was saying that about my 10 bolt rear with 40 ground hawgs on it. The next time i started it to move it to mow i thought some donuts in the back yard was in order and i about flipped the blazer on its side when the rear end went pow.
Ed

[pumpkin]

I finaly got help to load a pic

[pumpkin]

Here's another.

[special-K]

Did you hog out the wheel centers,cut down the hub,or a little of both?I must say,I found it hard to believe but thought it`s a cool move if possible.I just couldn`t picture it as possible.That`s awesome and you should provide a full list of how it`s done for others.In case you didn`t know,I suffer from an Eaton disorder and gather all the HO52s I can.Especially ones with the No-Spin.I just got back from picking one up in northern MA and I live in MD,about 8 hours away.

[pumpkin]

For the hubs I machined it down inboard and outboard of the flange. Machined the flange to about an inch thick. Drilled and tapped the six bolt pattern to 7/16 fine thread. pressed lugnuts onto morosso long wheel studs and bolted the rottors to the hub. The hub is a bitt thin where the clip that holds the outer bearing in place, but so far so good. I made three hubs, in case one was to break on the trail. Aftermarket wheels fit over the hub, but stock wheels won't. Then with a grinder and the truck running in gear I ground the axle shaft to the same size as the hub. Then the bolts were too big, so I got some allen head bolts and had them machined so they didn't overhang the axle. And believe it or not, I machined the hubs on an amco brake lathe, and redrilled the bolt patern by hand using a rottor as a giude. I am also a big fan of the ho 72. Lockers are getting harder to find up here, but 14 bolt lockers bolt in, you just have to use the 14 bolt axles.

[DirtyLarry]

That is pretty cool pumkin…I really didn’t think that was possible.

Seems like you went through a heck of a lot of work to maintain your 6 lugs wheels opposed to just swapping on 8 lug front rotors and backing and scoring a set of 8 wheels.

Definitely adds to the coolness and uniqueness factor of your rig though.

[pumpkin]

I did it all on a budget. I already had new tires, and don't like the steel wheels. So to change to 8 stud I would of had to buy new wheels and tires. My main reason for doing the swap was to put the detroit locker in teh Blazer that I had laying around.

[Zoomad75]

hmmm. Eaton. It looks like the eaton has a lot better ground clearance than the 14 bolt housing has. I don't think I'd go through the work to turn the hubs down, as I'd just swap the 8 lug parts on up front and get cheap steel wheels. But it is cool to see a full floater axle sticking out of a 6 lug wheel.

I could have swore I saw a ad in one of the off road mags that sold 6 lug hubs for 14b's too. Still the cost was high enough on them that the cost of swapping 8 lug parts up front and wheels was still cheaper.