FRONT AXEL WIDTH??

[Jeffsarasota]

So I'm looking at my 1978 Scout resurrection project. And it appears that the front tires stick out farther from the car than the rear. So I measure everything up and it appears that the front axle mounting pads are about an inch wider than the rear. Is this right? I assume somebody had swapped out the housings over the years and it must be incorrect...... Searched around on the internet and it looks like data 44s in these cars are 1 inch wider in the front. Can anybody confirm this. Thank you in advance

 

[Hondo]

Not sure what you mean by axle mounting pads. Could be the spring perches welded on the axles, or the shackle mounts welded on the frame? The rear shackle and spring mounts are mounted outboard of the frame rails, and the fronts are right under the frame rails, so the springs are closer together in the front. This is most likely to give the front tires additional clearance when they turn. There is also a lot of additional "stuff" mounted to the ends of the front axles that require space. I run 32 x 11.5 inch tires, and they do stick out more from the fenders in the front. (you might get more responses if you stop referring to your Scout as a "car", some IH people are sensitive to that

 

[ihpartsjeff]

From wms to wms (which means wheel mounting surface) the front axle is 60" wide and the rear is 58.5". As for the perch width on each axle, I don't recall those measurements but they are different from front to rear as the front springs are mounted under the frame while the rear springs are mounted outside the frame rails.

 

[Jeffsarasota]

Thank you both for the help. And Jeff thanks for the great sale last week! Picked up my 4 inch lift and a bunch of other goodies. So if the front wms to wms is an inch and a half wider than the rear that causes the front tires to stick out and gives a funny look to the rig.(in my opinion). So I guess I could just install longer wheel studs in the back and run a spacer to even everything out?

 

[Scoutboy74]

1.5 divided in half is .75 of an inch per side. Can you really perceive that little width difference front to rear with your naked eye?

 

[Hondo]

This is with 32 x 11.5s on 10 inch rims, quite noticeable. If you stick with 8 inch rims, it probably wouldn't be as noticeable.