Looking for pics/advice- widetrack front/std rear.

[Randyzzz]

After waaaay too long without making any progress on my Jeepster, I have resumed work! (I got sidetracked playing with my Baja Bug, which is now for sale.) I recently got a great set of springs with the 2" wide fronts (Thanks, Tim!). I added add-a-leafs and have the Jeepster sitting about 3" taller than before. Looks great! Now for my Question...

I am using a set of 73 axles- D44 flanged rear and D30 open knuckle front. I was planning on swapping in the disc brake setup from a widetrack D30 I have here. But... why not use the complete widetrack axle? Does anyone have pics of a Jeepster with a widetrack front and narrowtrack rear? How about handling? I know old Chev's had a wider front than rear, but does anyone have any experience on how this works in a Jeepster? I do have a set of 2" spacers that I could put on the rear, but then the tire looks like it might get into the fender lip on flexing. Maybe a thinner spacer? I'm not going for a real big tire or agressive wheeling...I'm running 31" BFG's on old Renegade slot mags.

I gotta tell you guys... it feels good to be working on the Jeepster again. I haven't worked on it for about a year [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] Missing the Dunes and now Reno was a bummer. In that year I built a Baja Bug and got that out of my system. I'm trying to cut down on my "Projects" so I have just the Jeepster and the Scrambler. The Scrambler was my Daily Driver but it's down due to a sheared tailshaft on the T176, so that's where I'm getting some of the parts for the Jeepster.

[MontanaJeep]

When I had somebody else do the 4.88 gear install on my axles I bought some used gears for the D27 and long story short the mechanic worked around the gears instead of asking me an easy question and working with the axle. So...I now have a D25 (same as 27 in most ways but a little narrower) and I ordered som aluminum spacers 1 1/4" each side. This gave me an extra 1 1/2" total WMS-WMS over factory.
It doesn't cause any problems except in the snow where the rear cannot track in the same spot that the front just packed down.

[RamblinCommando]

I have a narrow track 30 & 44 under my 73.I was going to run 1 1/4" spacers front and rear for extra stability,but the rear tucked perfectly with the 33x12:50s without the spacers.I did put them on the front and everything tracks nice down the road,and on the trail.

Also, afriend of mine has a wide track front and a narrow rear in his 69 and has no probloms.

[Randyzzz]

Sounds like what I wanted to hear. Do you have an extra pair of the 1 1/4"spacers? Want to trade for a pair of 2" spacers?

[Tim]

Okay, time for my two cents. Your rig will turn tighter with the front wide track and rear narrow track axles, than with two equal width axles or widening the rear stance with spacers. I think you should install the wide-track D-30 and see if you can live with the looks of the narrow rear D-44 without spacers. If you don't like it after giving it a chance, then you can always add spacers later.

If I remember correctly, 31x10.50's are as big as you can go on a stock width rear without requiring cutting of the fenders. I think if you added spacers, it'd be too wide and you'd need to cut or add more lift.

[Randyzzz]

Thanks, Tim- a tight turning radius is a bonus! Those springs worked out great, and I donated the old fronts and some steering linkage to Dan from Auburn, WA- his son's Jeepster was stolen and the front axle, steering, and springs were wrecked.

I tried the rear already with the 2" spacers- it looked good but I think I'd get into the fenders after about 4-5" of compression. I'll try it without spacers first and see how she handles. I can't wait to get her running! There's a big auto swap meet in Redmond Saturday, so hopefully I can offload some accumulated stuff, and spend Sunday swapping front axles!