I have a 60 chevy stepside that I wanted to put some 5 holes rims on. has anyone ever drilled or had drilled the hubs and drums to make 5 hole rims fit. i dont see why one couldnt do this with the right equipment.
I had this done on my 1960 GMC rear axle after I changed the front suspension to 1975 5 lug. If you want the stock 5x5 pattern, it's a pretty simple matter. My GMC has a Dana44 rear axle, if your's is a Chevy it's probably different but the procedure is the same. The axle flange has to be redrilled to the new bolt circle, and the brake drum locating stub on the axle needs to be turned down to match the register hole in the later drum. The later drums are finned and look much bigger, but the inner braking surface shares the same dimensions with the early model. If memory serves correctly, one of the 5x5 stud holes overlaps with one of the original 6 lug stud holes in the axle flange. The easy fix to avoid puddle welding the hole is to simply slice the threaded portion, and head off a stock stud, leaving nothing but the splined section. Press this in the axle flange and tack weld in place before drilling the new pattern. Converting to a passenger car bolt pattern may be possible, but I'm not familiar with what interference issues there may be.
just wanting to do the front I just want to drill out the hubs and drums on the front. I already have the wheels that I want on the back.
That being the case I'd pull a hub and drum assembly, and have a local machinist give it a look. As I recall it's not very flat on the back side of the hub, just some relief areas for the studs. It might require turning quite a bit of metal out to obtain a flat area small enough to accomodate whatever bolt circle you're after. Also the front of the hub will probably require some reduction as well. When I was running some later wheels on my early hubs the center hole on the wheel wouldn't fit over the hub without first reducing the hub diameter. Hopefully someone else will chime in that has actually done this on a 1960.
Which is not a good idea. 50/50 chance of compromising the rim causing a failure while driving. A lot of machine shops won't touch redrilling and studing a 6 lug hub/axle for 5 lugs. It's a liability issue for them. But,, it has been done and you may fine one that will do it. dv
there is a company who sells 5 stud replacement shafts for our stock axles but I can't find them now, I remember the price was pretty decent also. I plan to go this route unless anyone can has had a bad experience??? I will keep looking
Thanks Dval. any idea of these are good quality replacements or save the money and look for a later 5 bolt complete replacement axle?
As far as I know these are good axles, like everything else from EC. The advantage with going this way is that it will keep the rear width the same. Swapping to a later, 5 lug, 12 bolt will widen the rear slightly. It could lead to fender rub and require new rear wheels with corrected backspacing. dv
Thats correct, i used a later 12 bolt 5 lug rear and its an inch wider then the origanal, fortunatly i had my wheels made so it wasnt an issue, but it may be for some.
Thanks Johan, I will consider this. A buddy just offered me a 12 bolt with a posi from a GTO or firebird (not positive) for $500, Thinking about taking a look to see what kind of condition its in. Haven't done any measuring yet I was through Varney over the holidays and thought about giving you a call but had a grumpy passenger who wanted to get home, maybe next time!
Hi Leyland I like to get a posi to for me truck. I will put me truck to getter first .and go from there . give me a call when you want to come over.
Why don't you go with disk brakes? you can do this cheep if you do what I did. I bought a complete 77 1/2 ton chevy for 400.00. The front spindles will work with the torshon bar suspension if you use a 7/16" to 1" reamer on the lower ball joint hole. You can even use the upper a arms from the 77 cause they are the same dimentions as the 60. The power steering and linkage will work perfectly also if you space the box about a 1/2 to 3/4" away from the frame. The power brake booster and proportioning valve along with all the brake lines will also work with no problem. You should be able to get everything you need off of the late model truck to update your 60 and sell all the left overs to get your money back and then some, I did. Check out my 61 step side, everything came out very clean without buying any expensive kits and was easy to do.
If I recall the 60-62 have diffrent axles then the 63-66. If you had a 63-66 you could have used them or swaped in a 67-72 rear end!! But our 60's have the axle perches at a difrent location, and to use a newer one you need to cut the old ones off and weld in some new ones as well as a new panhard rod
If you have the six-lug hubs, then you'll need to change out to the 5 on 5 lug pattern hub and brake kits. If you were looking to change the 5 lug pattern to a smaller or larger 5 lug pattern, then it is possible to drill out the hubs for a 5 on 4.75, as an example. I did this for a set of vintage wheels I ran on my truck.
