Thread: '31 Model A Tudor Sedan Rear axle

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Well I ran into another problem today. I wanted to put my rear axle, engine and tranny in today so I could finish my new subfloor and it looks like my axle is too narrow. It's 56" from hub to hub and I think I could use 60". Anyone else have any ideas?? I'm really happy with this body but I really didn't want to re-do my whole rear. I think I'll just order the brackets this time instead of making everything.

My body is 54" where I need to go and I figured I'd need a couple inches on each side for clearance. I don't have the wheels I want yet but the ones I've been looking at have about 4" backspacing and I imagine the tires will hang over about an inch and a half. The biggest wheel spacers I can find are 1 1/4" and I think I'd need 2". HELP.

Sean

There's something missing in your story at least from what I think I'm reading. A model A should only be somewhere around 42" across the rear wheel wells. The widest part of the whole lower body is at the beltline on the B pillar and that is shy of 54" normally. A 56", mounting flange to mounting flange should be about "perfect" for any normal model A installation.

Sorry I should have told you guys what I have. It's channeled about 4" and I've got the frame Z'ed for a 6" ride height. The tires come up to about the beltline where the body is 54" wide. I have a picture of my '27 T mounted on this frame just to show how it sits. I then found a Model A in such great shape I had to change my direction as this is what I wanted in the first place. The frame fit so well I figured that it would be an easy swap but I never thought this would cause problems. I guess that's part of the fun .

Sean

A 3.75 backspace and about an inch of tire bulge will bring you about even with the inside of the brake drum, so you can move from that depending on wheel and tire choice. Looks like you have two choices, go to a wider rearend or raise the wheel houses to clear and go with what you've got.

What rear end is it?
You might cheat a couple inches out of it with wheel spacers but other than that or a different offset wheel there isn't much you can do short of swapping the rear end or clearancing the sheet metal.

I picked up an '86 F150 9" rearend today I think he said it was 32 spline, gave it a sandblast and I think I'll get a rebuild kit for it. It's 57" drum to drum so I figure I'll try to get wheels with about 3" of backspacing and I should be good to go. After about 10 mins with the sandblaster it looks brand new! .

Anything I should know about this axle? It looks pretty beefy. So now I get to do my suspension over again.

Sean

Originally Posted by sgo70

I picked up an '86 F150 9" rearend today I think he said it was 32 spline, gave it a sandblast and I think I'll get a rebuild kit for it. It's 57" drum to drum so I figure I'll try to get wheels with about 3" of backspacing and I should be good to go. After about 10 mins with the sandblaster it looks brand new! .

Anything I should know about this axle? It looks pretty beefy. So now I get to do my suspension over again.

Sean

No way is an '86 Ford p/u 9" rear end only 57". The only Ford 9" at that width is the '57-59 @57.25.

The 85/86 F150 would have had about a 65" wide diff. I had one and it was w-i-d-e.

But with that said, and if it is indeed 57" wide, it's perfect - just not an '86

I'm measuring the inside width on the backing plates. It's a couple inches wider than my '96 F150 at 57". Do you think it may be something else. The only numbers I could find were 3 50 95a16 and 5318d and 3074. I'll doublecheck the axles but I don't know what any of this means except the 3:50 gears. I'll post a picture.

Sean

Sean, when Dan's '29 was still a sedan he used a rear axle out of a mid 80's GMC van (full size) it was just right without reversed wheels. If you want, I can measure the drum to drum width for you, if the new one doesn't work out for you.

Here is how it fit his with a deep drop.

Don

Thanks Don, I was just going to go out to my garage and see if it fits, the guy even threw in some wheels for mock up. I'm starting to think I should just build another frame and finish both cars. (extra axle, body, engine......it's almost all there!)

What size rear wheels are those?

Sean

7:60 X 16 on the rear Sean, and 6:00 x 16 front.

Don