I have a 1956 F350 dually which I am changing the 5.14 geared stock 6 lug rear end to a 1972 dana 70 8 lug rear with 410 gears.Has anyone converted the front end on one of these trucks to accept the later 8 lug wheels?

 

Unlike the 48-52, where the axles and spindles are the same for F1-3, the 53-55 (and presumably the 56 as well, but my parts catalog doesn't go that far) the F-350 uses it's own, unique axle and spindle from the smaller trucks. Because of that, it's unlikely the F-250 8 lug hubs and brakes will be a simple swap. It may be possible though to change out the entire axle assembly (inc. spindles, hubs, brakes, etc.) from an F-250 of the same era and take care of the whole shebang in one shot.

 

I have a '54, F350 And last year I scored the rear end and front hub and spindle assy's from a '75, F350. The rear is a no brainer, but the front has took some thinking (OUCH, that hurt). When I get that far I will have my machinist buddy make a set of pins and bushings to cross breed the '75 spindles to the '54 front axle and then have the axle rebent as nessary to aline it. Walla!!! Eight hole tubeless wheels. Tom

 

All 1953/66 F350: 6 lug wheels on a 7.25" bolt circle.

1953/62's have a Timken rear axle / 1963/66 have a Spicer (Dana) 70, as do 1967/84's, some 1985's.

1967/96 F350: 8 lug wheels on a 6.50" bolt circle. With SRW, the wheels are the same as like year F250's, 1969/74 E300's & 1975/02 E250/350's.

 

After you mentioned using the later spindles on the 54 it reminded me of a guy with a red 55 F350 at the nationals about 5-6 years ago.I think he told me he used mid 70's spindles,rotors and hubs.Not sure about the pins or the mounting angle.Don't really remember exactly what he said he did but something about the tie rods and redrilling the taper.Wish my memory wasn't so bad!

 

Tom, do you think the axle needs to be bent?

 

Uhaul, I'm talking about twin I beam spindles and a solid streight axle, so chances are the camber of the king pins will be slightly different hence rebinding the beam. I'm used to doing stuff that others tell me won't work. Swapping out spindles on different axles is old school and goes back many many years in hot rodding. Tom

 

I see what you mean,I took the front spindles off a 72 F350 twin I beam.Your right because usually everytime I come up with an idea most people tell me it wont work.

 

I was looking at the '56 and the "72 spindles today.Getting them to fit should not be too much trouble but I have no idea how to tackle the steering linkage.The '56 has a cast arm that the drag link attaches to.The '72 has no provision for that.Not sure how to deal with that

 

I picked up a 81 e350 dully front spindles. the king pins are bigger but are the same size as the od of the bushings for the 55 f350 i have so I was going to press them in w/ shim stock and use my kingpin set I just bought. the axle needs to be bent 5 degrees to match the camber. it also has disc brakes 8 lug . You need to make a piece to drop the cross link to miss the springs. I will get more info for the steering later. also will add pics. on the change over. It can be done!

 

If you look at how the drum is attached, you will see the typical 8 on 6.5 pattern back there. I powered up my front drums with a v belt over to my bandsaw motor and cut the six lug bell shaped flange off with a 10" angle grinder and used a set of toledo adapters from wheeladapters.com to change them to 8 lug. I have driven it hard for a year and a half and done 80 on the freeway, no vibrations. I had used a 10 1/4 sterling rear axle from a '92 f350 for my rear and didn't want to carry two spares, and besides it looks pretty lame with 8 lug rear and six lug front. I have lots of pics of how I did it on my old computer, but I don't know how to get them on my new one to send. A mackine shop could do the operation in a more civilazed manner, but I was careful and did a safe job of it. Hopefully I can find a pic on this computer of the completed job. Edit: You can see the 8 lug to 8 lug toledo adapter in the first photo behind the date stamp in the corner. These are a beautifully made professional grade cast steel part, and Detroit used them on many stock model trucks.

 

couldnt an f250 axle be obtained and swapped out as well?

 

GB nice work,do you have a better picture of the adapters and how they were mounted.

 

Can anyone verify what Wayne said, is the '56 F350 front beam axle and spindles different than the F100?

 

Similar looking but different part numbers, without a tape I think 350 is much heavier.The latter is the 250 pn.The springs are longer as well, I wanted to put some in my 250.