I have an offer from the owner of a 1941 3/4 ton pickup to give him a little money and swap rear axles with him. His truck is very rough, past restorable, but it has a 4.11 rear. My truck is a 50 F-2. I have an extra rear axle from a 47 1 ton. I want to swap the 47 1 ton axle for the 1941 3/4 ton rear axle. At the end of the swap the 41 3/4 ton has to be rollable again. Since these have different wheel bolt patterns I need to swap the drums (and hubs?) between the axles. Does anyone have pictures of removing the necessary parts from an axle assembly?

 

Well here is a thread I had on disassembly of my rear hub. It is for a 55 F-250, so I don't know how much different they will be.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...y-55-f250.html

I also have more photos here:
Driver Side Rear Wheel pictures by harrier1351 - Photobucket

Hope this helps.
I'm sure someone with more info on your years will be along soon.

 

Boy, what a find. Could you not just swap the ring and pinion sets then put the '41s complete axle back under the donor? I can sure understand that you don't want to get these things pulled apart and find there are small differences in their construction. I didn't do my own and give Chuck full credit for that. If you do exchange the housings and all, I'd be confident you'd have to swap hubs, half shafts, and maybe even brake bits since the '41 3/4 ton has the "wide 5" hubs and half shafts while the '47 tonner has the 5 x 6 7/8" pattern. You'd almost have to lay a Green Bible side-by-side with the '48-'52 catalog to compare part numbers. I realize this isn't much help. Maybe Chuck will drop by and comment. Stu

 

I'm not married to any plan for ending up with the 4.11 ratio, I simply figured swapping the entire housing between trucks would be quickest. After looking at the Green Book and the 48-55 Truck Chassis Parts Book I'm not so sure. The wheel bearings are all the same for 41 to 52 axles, the differential carrier is the same 41 to 47, but the 42-52 axle shafts are longer than the 41 axle shafts. I hope the shaft length change is due to a wider drum in the 42 and later axles.

My memory is that the rear frame rails and the spring hangers are the same distance apart 1940-1952, can anyone verify this?

 

Should be the same 34". I don't have a reference for '41, but the '46 dealer handbook shows the 34". I think that was SAE standard. Stu