The spindles on the 10.25 rear axle in my '90 Centurion are damaged from some seriously bad wheel bearings and I'm trying to decide what to do. I can either get another 10.25 or, possibly, swap to a later 10.50 axle with disc brakes.

Are there any reasons why going to the 10.50 axle wouldn't be a straight-forward, bolt-up exercise? Is wheel mating surface spacing the same? I know the lug bolt spacing is different, but is that the only real issue?

Thanks

 

The bolt pattern of the 10.5 is different. It's metric and not going to work. It's not the easiest to redrill it yourself.
The superduty van has a d60 disk brake. If you're not towing huge things you're not downgrading. And it's the same bolt pattern.

 

I'm aware of that problem. What I'm wondering is are there other issues?

 

That's the only real issue. It's the same rear axle...
Parking brake cables are easily swapped.

So really, the only thing worth reinforcing is the bolt pattern being different.

The 05+ has a wider track width. The early 99 uses the same caliper on both sides. Makes it easy to keep a spare.
The internal parking brake has a tendency to rust and lock up. Once you replace the old stuff you should be fine. But if the backing plate is rusted too much, you can't replace it cause it's welded on. Find an axle where they are both good.

 

Thank you for that.

I am "concerned" about the 10.5's parking brake compared to the drum parking brake of the 10.25. I want the most tenacious parking brake I can get! Do you have any experience taxing the two?

How much wider is the '05 and later axle WMS?

 

The older drum brakes have a better parking brake. My superdutys all suck compared to my obs truck.

I set parking brake and then put truck in park, on a hill, with a 10+k trailer, load and unload tractor...
Superduty parking brake, held 60% I'm guessing. There was some load on the park pin, meaning truck rolled some.
Obs parking brake, held 100%, meaning no load on park pin.

I have installed the "mico-lock" "lever lock" brake doodad thingy. It is essentially a one way brake valve, with a lever. Hold brake, flip lever; or flip lever, push brake, and the brakes stay on. I only use enough force to keep brakes held, and I have t had any issues with overnight use. I put it on front brakes, and along with parking brake, my trucks never move.

 

05 axle is like 1.5" wider each side. Rims are offset different is the most noticeable.
I don't know the width difference. Sorry.

 

That is precisely what I felt. Disc brakes would be nice in the rear, but I really think I would be sacrificing a lot in the parking brake.

I've had three SDs and never had a problem, but those trucks were for pulling a big car trailer, not crawling over steep mountain passes. I've had the experience in my Wagoneer of being forced to stop on a steep slope and get out of the vehicle while not having a good parking brake. It really sucked!

I don't think there is anything inherently bad about rear drum brakes. If working properly they work just as well as disc brakes. In my case the spindles are damaged, the wheel bearings and seals need to be replaced, the drums are at their wear limit and so are the shoes. By the time all this stuff is fixed an SD disc brake rear could be in the truck.

What to do, what to do?

I have looked at the Mico line lock for the front axle. Something like that is going to happen too.

Thanks for your comments.

 

I'm still thinking about this. The two concerns are the capability of the parking brake and the wheel bolt pattern differences.

A thought occurred to me. The complaint with the different bolt pattern is creating a requirement to carry two different wheels and tires as spares. However, you can accomplish the same thing with one spare and one hub adaptor. The hub adaptor is small enough to be stored pretty much anywhere.

The intent would be to keep the standard 8x6.5 on the front axle, a spare with the 8x6.5 bolt pattern, and a hub adaptor to go from the 8x170 on the rear axle to the 8x6.5 of the spare(s).

The cosmetic concern would be finding wheels of the same model with the two different bolt patterns. In my case it's not a problem. The C-350 came new with the American Racing Outlaw 2 wheels (in the 8x6.5 pattern of course), but American Racing also makes this wheel in the same size with the 8x170 bolt pattern. So, for less than $300, you have a truck that looks homogenous and you only need a single spare wheel.

Not necessarily the solution for everybody, but it is an easy and viable option.

 

I think that the van super duty Dana 60 has the same diameter rotors as the super duty with the metric bolt pattern. So depending on how well they Dana 60 rotor fits onto the metric hub, you can possibly make a drill bushing to going to the rotor and drill the metric her to the standard bolt pattern.

And also I don't believe anybody has disproved that the 10 1/4 hub won't fit on a 10 1/2 axle. It may be an offset thing I do not know.

Now you got me wanting to check this out further.

 

I've read in several places that the parking brake shoes have to have a fair amount of trimming when used with the 10.25 hub and axle. That doesn't mean that the hub can't be used, but it won't be a simple bolt-on (still, a very minor problem if that is the only obstacle).

I did check hub wheel bearing part numbers yesterday, but neither they, or the seal, is interchangeable.

Without having a 10.5 axle to look at, there's a lot of qualifiers I have to make note of. Having an inexpensive and tolerable way to bypass all this using an adaptor, though, means this (a 10.5 axle swap) can still be done even if there's a major obstacle down the road in other methods.

Haven't decided on the parking brake issue yet though.