Thread: Chevy Rear Axle Questions

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Another Question involving my C-Cab. It came with a 12 bolt that was out of a 69-70 Impala (so I'm told) and it's about 63" wide from wheel mounting face to wheel mounting face. (drum face to drum face) It's just way too wide, especially since I woulds like to run some 15x10 wheels. To add to that, I found out that there are two different 12 bolt axle shafts, std. and big bearing. I have the big bearing ones so that aces me out of using Camaro shafts and narrowning the rear. Does anyone know of another axle outfit that makes these axles narrower than Moser?? How about the bearing cups themselves?

I've also thought about just junking the whole axle and trying to find one that's narrower. That brings up the next question... I'm having a tough time finding an 8.5" ring gear 10 bolt in the ballpark of 58" drum face to drum face. What vehicles should I be looking in? Rumor I heard was they were in S-10's but I'm not sure what years. I also just picked up a '57 Chev axle that's about 59" wide and was thinking of using that.

Any suggestions?Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks!

Custom length axles? Dutchman, right across the river in Portland. http://www.dutchmanms.com/index.html


Axle widths? http://www.teufert.net/other/rear%20...dimensions.htm

Yeah I talked with him last fall. To get my 12 bolt set up, it'd run me just shy of $400 and that's with me moving any necessary brackets and any other disassembly. I was trying to circumvent him to save some money. And that's when i started thinking of 10 bolt donor posibilities realizing that how light the car is and it only being just under 300hp, a 12 bolt really isn't all that necessary. Or am I wrong?

Anyways, thanks for the links Bob. I may just give him another call before I set my mind to something. Might have some alternate solutions for me. Thanks again.

If you've got a big bearing axle, it's out of a truck, not a car. I don't know that there is a difference between truck and car axle shafts except the length, so you could probably use Camero axle shafts and have the tubes trimmed. The difference is in the carrier.

Yeah i've heard that too and I was thinking the same thing. But aren't the truck axles wider than 63"? The guy i bought the T from insisted that the axle was out of his old '69 or '70 Impala, which was a small block car. Makes no sense as i've also heard that only big block Impalas would have the big bearing axles thought most didn't. The bolt circle on the axles is 5 on 4.75 and doesn't look like they've been tamperd with. IIRC, trucks are a 5 on 5 bolt circle, right?

I was about to use Camaro axles until i found out mine was a big bearing setup. Finding aftermarket axles, other than Moser, who carry big bearing axles at Camero widths is just not happening. There's alot of small bearing aftermarket 12 botl axles for Camaros on E-Bay but they all are for the 1.40 shafts, not the 1.62's like mine.

Thanks for the info

As I recall Streets posted a list (or link) for axel widths quite a while back you might check the archives. For a 10 bolt, it seems like 68-72 Chevy Nova (and clones) are an inch or two narrower than the tri-5 axels. For 9" ford the 57-59s were about as norrow as you could find.

Thanks Mike.
Yeah i heard rumors that the Nova axle could work too. Were these 10 bolts ( the novas) an 8.5 or 8.2 ring gear?? I was told to stay with the 8.5 ring gear axles if possible, as they are the strongest of the 10 bolts.