RE: [ihc] Beating a dead horse--er, axle

["Mac @ TRIAD" <mac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

## >> Wheel spacers?  Doesn't sound factory to me, as the true
## >> weight capacity
## >> of the axle is decreased with such devices.  Sounds like either the
## >> front or rear axle has been swapped, because the lug pattern
## >> would have
## >> matched from the factory without using any spacer/adaptor.
## >> Rear axles being more common than front driving axles for
## >> that era truck,
## >> I would expect the rear axle isn't the original, so what is
## >> there may not be
## >> the RA-20 listed on the lineset.

the truck was originally intended to be a dually, i believe, though i do not
know if it ever really was dualled or not.  the spacers are there to push
the rear wheels (dished deep offset dual-type wheels all the way around),
out into the same track width as the front axle has.  is that factory?  i
don't know.  i've seen other trucks that use this same kind of wheel, using
similar spacers, that put the outer wheel mounting surface about even with
the axle endcap on the full floating hub, to offset the missing outer wheel
on duals.  are any of them factory?  i don't know.  this B140 doesn't have
the spaced fenders for duals on the bed, so it's possible it never had dual
wheels at all.  Joel told me the lineset says it came with that bed.  if so,
then it wasn't dualled by the factory.  my 1500A came from the factory with
duals, and my guess is the dealer installed a long narrowbox bed with the
fender spacers on it (the factory never put those kinds of beds on a 1500)
at the buyer's request, because that's what it had on it when it came to me,
and the guy *I* bought it from is the guy that bought it from the winery
that bought it new, and he's the guy that was its original operator from the
day they got it to the day they excessed it to him.

as for the difference in lug patterns...  my suspicion is that the drums
have been changed.  on either the front or the rear.  either it came with
five on eight all the way around and the rear drums have been changed to six
on seven and a quarter; or it came with six on seven and a quarter and the
fronts have been changed to five on eight.  either way, it seems fairly
logical.  with the lack of availability of brake parts, it is possible and
perhaps even likely that whoever was maintaining that truck grabbed what
drums they could find when they needed them, and then worked it out
afterwards.

i do not know which of the drum types became obsolete first, the six on
seven and a quarter or the five on eight.  i suspect six on seven and a
quarter, because i see a LOT of five on eight still running around,
especially here on post, where many *newer* military trailers, with brakes,
are five on eight.  best guess, the front six on seven and a quarter drums
wore out, and were replaced by newer five on eight drums.  not impossible, i
think.

and the odd thing is that if it came with an RA20 axle originally, then BOTH
axles have been swapped, because only the FA50 and FA55 front axles have the
same differential housing size and matching gearsets for the rear axle
that's under there now.  when did IH ever put a heavier axle on the front
than they put on the rear, anyway?  or *any* truck manufacturer?  that front
axle is the same size as the current rear axle.  the lineset lists an FA50
front axle, which is an eight pint axle housing, much bigger than the five
and a half pint RA15 and RA20 housings.  IH would not have put a smaller
axle than that on the rear, would they?  the current rear axle is also the
eight pint axle, just like mine.  perhaps it's a misprint and it should read
RA30 like the manual for those years says the eight pint axle was?

okay, i'm really going to bed now.  brain meltdown.

--Mac

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Krystof "Mac" MacBryghde
TyrGothi

http://master.triad.ath.cx/