Axles that can be swapped in place of the stock axles

[Swampthang]

If you have been paying attention JP recently upgraded the axles under their project M715. They used a '85-'96 Ford dual rear wheel highpinion D-60 front axle and it is a direct spring-over bolt in for our trucks. Measuring at 77" + or - it works well with surplus Humvee wheels on M trucks. They also used a D-70 rear from a Chebby dually (not cab and chassis) truck that measures 73" wide.

The problem with this rear is that you still have to move the spring perches. I have found a better solution. A Chebby G30-G.M.C.G3500 van with dual rear wheels features a 73 1/2" wide D-70 and more importantly SHARES THE EXACT SPRING PERCH WIDTH AS OUR TRUCKS!!!!! It is a bolt in and as an added benefit is wide enough to allow use of the chevy drums with their parking brake system.
Put one under my truck this afternoon and reused all the van stuff like u-bolts and anchor plates. One shock mount must be moved as the van shocks are staggered(one in front of the axle and one behind) and the factory jeep rear brake line needs to be lengthened because the van flex hose is on the passenger side. Simple swap.

Jp used 14bolt GM hubs to widen their rear out to match the front axle. This works great if you want to run discs on the rear, however the rear disc parking brakes sucked when new and installed on a passenger car. I doubt they would hold a Kaiser with big tires. I plan to leave my truck drum rear and run 1 1/2" spacers to get my width right.

[Ronner]

Awesome info! This should be put in a sticky.

[Swampthang]

One thing, the ford front is a driver drop axle which means you will have to replace the stock np200 transfer case with the ford style divorced mount np205.

[Binford]

Anyone know of a bolt-in front axle that's as Plug-N-Play as the rear Swampthang posted about? And preferably with the same bolt pattern. If so, let's add it to this Sticky! Thanks, ST!

[res0wc18]

i would think that any ford high pinion 60 from those era of trucks would bolt in if you had a spring over done. I will be finding out soon here as i have my 89 f350 that i will be using for the running gear etc.


Anyone know if the late 70's ford dana 70 out of the f350 trucks will have the same spring mounting setup as the stock stuff? What other axles will? Trying to find one that will bolt in with my spring over setup..

[Tomahawk715]

A Dana60 chevy axle shares the same bolt pattern as the van gmc3500 rear axle hes talking about. It also has a passenger side drop so no need to change stock transfer case. I installed a high steer kit so I'm not sure if there is any other issues that arise in using it (IE steering)

I went with the 14 bolt on the rear and switched to discs as the cost to rebuild those drums was higher than the kit and parts to switch to discs. That and I couldnt find a van axle anywhere.

[loosewrenchcowboy]

Tomahawk-
did you use a single rear wheel 14 bolt axle? if so how did you get the correct width(wms to wms)? and if you used a dually rear 14 bolt(like JP was going to do-but i missed that issue), how did you get the brake rotor and caliper spaced properly?

[randyscycle]

I just did the 14 bolt rear swap into a '67 M715. You will need the GM 1 ton Van 14 bolt, which measures 72" WMS to WMS. Anything else will require wheel spacers and spring work to move the leaves under or inside the frame.

You will also need to use rear discs. There are any number of companies offering kits, and I found I had to rotate the calipers down low to clear the springs even with this arrangement. I didn't try to put a stock drum backing plate on the axle afterit was installed, but with the dished shape, it would almost certainly hit the spring on the inside.

[Ronner]

Hey Randy, I used the d60/14b from a CUCV and I just welded new perches and switched to disk brakes. Everything fit perfectly and with 4.5" bs the wheels look good.

[randyscycle]

Originally Posted by BBM715

Hey Randy, I used the d60/14b from a CUCV and I just welded new perches and switched to disk brakes. Everything fit perfectly and with 4.5" bs the wheels look good.

What is the WMS to WMS on the CUCV axle? I can't recall it offhand.....