sterling 10.25 and 10.5 question!!

[RIDER68]

ok i bought a sterling 10.25 and it is about 3 inches more narrow than my dana 60 front end. (1.5" each side") my dad has a sterling 10.5 out of a 2003 f350 powerstroke and it has the metric lug pattern. has anyone converted that axle to 8 on 6.5 bolt pattern?? i would like to run it because it is a little bit wider and has the factory disc brakes on it. do you have to have custom axle shafts made or what do u have to do to get it to be 8 on 6.5? please give me some feed back im going to be ordering gears and lockers soon so i do not know which rear axle i am using yet.
thank you

 

[1sicbronconut]

Might be able to redrill the hubs on the 10.5 sterling. To me the best thing would be to find a Dana 60 out of a late model E350 van they still use the 8 on 6.5" bolt pattern and are also equiped with disc brakes.

 

[RIDER68]

ya i have looked into them too! i have a early model dana 60 with 4:56 gears and a detroit locker in it but it was 6 inches too short and looked retarded in there i was thinkin about just runnin the 10.5 since its here and im sick of buying rear axles lol i have a mini graveyard goin on here of them lol

 

[DanWheeler]

I just went out and measured my front vs rear width tire to tire and yep, its about 3" more narrow in the rear.

I have a front 89 Dana 60 and rear 86 10.25

I think I remember asking the same question and wondering why it was off by 3 whole inches. Before you toss the narrower rear axle, do some searching on google for "front axle wider"

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/886361-why-does-my-front-axle-have-a-wider-trac-than-the-rear.html

http://www.gmsquarebody.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1871

Can you tell my front is wider than the rear by 1.5" on both sides?

Don't undo the engineering!

 

[RIDER68]

ya i have a 79 kingpin and a 91 sterling but i dont know why they made the 10.5 a little wider just by looking at it you can tell it is a wider axle and ok thank you i will check those links out

 

[dclack]

You can use the Superduty 10.5, just check out this link. There are 3 options in that thread to convert it to 8 on 6.5 (The third is toward the end.).

Btw, 10.25 and 10.5 gears and lockers are interchangeable. The only difference between the two is the inner pinion bearing, so just buy a master install kit that's the same as the gears (10.25 gears & bearing kit or 10.5 gears and bearing kit) and you are good to install them in either axle. Actually, I don't think there are any aftermarket gear vendors that make 10.5 gears, just 10.25.

 

[DanWheeler]

also make sure you get a long pinion spline gear kit. There were some problems with the earlier short pinion Sterlings.

must read!

http://www.fourwheeler.com/techarti...06_ford_1025_1050_inch_axle_tips/viewall.html

 

[SpareParts]

The newer front axles will be wider to accommodate the wider rear. They have changed the offset of the wheels to a bigger backspacing and made the axles wider for better handling.