wheel studs

[tonielena]

I'm going to be doing some work on the axles of my '67 W200 (small 44/Dana 60). I've looked through the threads but didn't find exactly what I was looking for. I would like longer wheel studs, 2 1/2"-3" like on my other stuff. I haven't looked too deeply into it on the truck, but the front axle has already been converted to all rh threads. The rear still has rh-lh but 3 studs are broken on the lh side. I would change to all rh and keep things simple. I have seen mention of possibly two different styles of studs, don't know which currently exist as I haven't removed any to see. I have seen discussion that there aren't any longer than the short factory ones, really only good for steel wheels. Is this because of the splined hole and stud being only something like 1/2 inch? ARP makes all kinds of longer studs, but most with 1/2" or 13mm threads use around 9/16 pilot hole for splines IIRC. So why can't I drill out hubs/brakes to fit larger splines and be done with it. If I'm taking everything apart anyway, doesn't seem like all that big a deal. Anyone addressed this and agree or have a better/simpler solution? Thanks.

[Wildergarten]

I've looked through the threads but didn't find exactly what I was looking for. I would like longer wheel studs, 2 1/2"-3" like on my other stuff.
So why can't I drill out hubs/brakes to fit larger splines and be done with it. If I'm taking everything apart anyway, doesn't seem like all that big a deal. Anyone addressed this and agree or have a better/simpler solution? Thanks.

There is a fairly extensive description of what I went through with wheel studs on my build thread. That said, pre-69 trucks had lugs swaged into the hub. Both removal and new installation are an extensive operation. I torched them out.

So why can't I drill out hubs/brakes to fit larger splines and be done with it. If I'm taking everything apart anyway, doesn't seem like all that big a deal. Anyone addressed this and agree or have a better/simpler solution? Thanks.

If you have a big drill press or milling machine with a rotary talbe, go for it. I sure as hell wouldn't do it free-hand, especially with drum brakes.

[tonielena]

I guess this could go on my build post, but this is really the right topic and there has been some discussion here related to what I have been doing. I have had several problems at once, and all related, to solve. My truck has '95 8x17 8 bolt Dodge wheels. Nice but not quite the right offset. I recently bought some 90% on/off road tires from a neighbor that was selling the truck they were on, 285/70R17, so these wheels were great and I want to keep them. Dreaded pittman arm tire rub issue not helped by the offset of these wheels. Both front wheel stations on the Dana 44 had been previously changed to rh wheel studs. Rear Dana 60 had 3 broken studs on LH side with still LH threads. Here's what I did to fix everything for not much money. While things are apart putting new knuckle bearings on the front axle and the hubs were apart, I replaced the stock size wheel studs with Dorman 610290 longer ones that allowed a 1/2 inch wheel spacer to move the wheels out a bit. That left me with 16 nice stock rh studs. I found that if I spaced the steering box lower front mounting hole away from the frame with a 1/4 inch spacer while leaving the top front and rear holes touching the frame, the pittman arm tilted in toward the center of the truck and now travels parallel to the frame and 1/8 inch away from it. That moved the drag link joint in almost 1/2 inch and between moving the box and the wheel spacers my 285 tires clear the arm throughout the travel. In the rear, I cut all studs and ground them flush with the hub face. Drilled a centered hole about 1/2 inch deep in each stud, 1/4 inch to start, then 1/2 inch, and finally took out the coined shoulder with an 11/16 drill carefully. Put a 1/2 inch dia. bolt in each stud hole and just a couple whacks with a 3 lb mallet and they popped right out with no damage to brake or hub at all. Studs from the front were exactly the right size and went in with a couple hits and tightened nicely. Wasn't too difficult to do by hand at all, good quality drill motors and drills helped. It all looks very nice now, spent less than $100 on sorting these issues out so I'm pleased. The discussions here gave me food for thought, thank you.