Hello. Long time lurker, first time poster.

I'm knee deep in my rebuild of a pretty rough 1973 F100 (360 FE)
I picked up an '05 Crown Vic front end to upgrade the steering up front, but I'm running into the problem of that having a 4.5 lug pattern versus the 5.5 on the rear. I read about the spacers, and how putting them up front isn't a great idea because the new front end sticks out a bit wider already as it is.

So I looked at spacers to turn the rear into 4.5 as well so I can have the same rims all around. They are like $80 each. One thing I was wondering is how reliable are these? Seems kind of shady to do a spacer, but the again i'm not to familiar.

Then I emailed every machinist in the area, and got the same responses, either: "I have no idea how to do that, find someone else"
OR
"I have no idea how to do that, but I can try and it'll be $50 an hour and take at least 6 hours"

Soooo ... I'm open for other, cheaper(?) or more sensible ideas. Is there a year range of cars/trucks that I can rummage through at picknpull to find internal components to just convert my 9" rear to 4.5?

I know I want to keep the 9" cause, well, its a 9". But, for example, the 03 and up CV front end is a well known salvage yard upgrade for this truck that I knew about ... is there a similar thing that is commonly pulled to take care of this problem? I searched the forums here (and elsewhere) but I couldn't seem to find anything that specifically addressed this issue from that angle. Any suggestions, help, or links to what I didn't manage to find would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

According to our fellow members, some (all?) 80-83 F100s rear ends have the small bolt pattern you're looking for.


EDIT: Welcome to FTE.

 

There were many cars equipped 9" rears with that bolt pattern...I ASSume some of the axles would be compatible. Also some 80+ f-100's had that bolt pattern...not exactly sure if they were 9" or not...

 

I am no rear end expert, well not for vehicles anyway. And i have not done any of this, but I remember reading some use an explorer rear end to put into these conversions for the matching lug spacing.

 

Use this search string in google. Looks like lots of options.

ford 9 5 on 4.5

 

I had noticed some people talking about the explorers having what I might need. But, as you said, the stuff is kind of vague. Haha, I am a big fan of hard and fast rules. (i.e. 03 and up front end from CV, Grand Marquis, or Town Car will work for what you want)

If I go to the pick and pull without a specific make, model, and rear range to look for, I'm gonna end up
1. Thinking I have the right thing and taking it home to find out otherwise
2. Meandering the lot and buying a bunch of crap I don't need.

 

With regards to passenger vehicle 9-inchers, the issue is axle length and housing width... both come up short in relation to truck axles and housings.


80-83 F100s were 9-inch with the small lug pattern according to our fellow members.


Explorer 8.8s.. sure but ya gotta, among other things, relocate the leaf spring pads and I believe change the pinion yoke.

 

My '82 F-100 4x4 Stepside had 5x4.5" pattern.

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech...nchAxles.shtml

http://www.kevinstang.com/Ninecase.htm

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/t...ements.255093/

 

You should be able to find a machinist that can redrill your axles and drum.

You might have to find a forum that has guys that are hobbyists. I'm no machinist, but I think all they have to have is an index plate. You could possibly do it yourself if you found a 5x4.5 drum or disc that would fit on the rear and use a floor mount drill press.

 

A good rear end shop should be able to re-drill the rear axles for the new bolt pattern. Moser (IN) offers this service I believe as do others. You would have to double check hole size for the center register vs wheels selected.

Agree the spacers are not the best... they can weaken the wheel/axle joint and extra fasteners can work themselves loose.