jeff wilson
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Im wanting to put a 14 bolt 1 ton axle in my 85 K5 will I have spring perch issues or what yr will bolt in? I have no problem moving them, but if I can avoid it I rather would.
Heres the 14 bolt bible...itll answer a lot of questions and i believe they say what vehicles specifically have the 14 bolt youre looking for. Also there is such a thing as a 2nd gen 14 bolt. it has more ribbing to the housing, its also a bit narrower, the shock mounts wont line up and theres no such thing as a "bolt on" disk brake swap...the brackets have to be welded on.
Its more or less easier if you find a 1st gen, which there are millions. Just thought that would help because i ended up with a 2nd gen unknowingly, which is ok but its a bit more of a headache to deal with.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/14b_bible/
The 2nd gen van axles are slightly wider (at least, mine is). I like these axles because they came with removable brake drums (which is why the hub isn't compatible with bolt-on brackets). A good set of serviceable drum brakes is lots funner than servicing the original behind-the-hub drums. So you may not need to do a disc swap if you get the later axle style. FWIW.
There are ribbed axles that have the older style of hub on them (with the unserviceable brakes). I'm not sure why they kept making brakes like that, but they're out there.
Good to know. There's sort of a dizzying amount of combos with 14 bolts. The 2nd gen 14s use a shorter spindle so no matter what drum style you have you can't use a bolt on bracket. A bolt on bracket could be made but I guess theres not much of a market for some reason. If I stayed with drums I would much rather have the slip on ones!


so if someone was to have a bolt on kit for the newer style slide off drum 14ff would you buy it ?
and it would be a fair price and clockable a little bit by the bolt pattern . so different spring / block / other options would clear most of the time .