C4 vette based AWD

I'm thinking about using a C4 vette front crossmember and suspension in my AMC hornet AWD project.I'd like to use the stock pieces.Can I use the C4 rear hubs on the front spindles.I plan on using a front third member that's axle tubes run the width of the crossmember.This is how AMC put the eagle together.They used short axles from the third member tube ends to the hubs in the spindles.By using the vette suspension I will be getting better geometry then a 76 amc,options for brakes,wheels,etc. from take off parts.Thought,suggestions,warnings appreciated.

This sounds like a very difficult and intensive project.

I can't wait to see final product!

I plan to document it with pics.Stock eagle parts are a bolt on way I can get AWD.Using stock parts puts about 12" between the ground and the bottom of the rocker panel.I'm looking for a way to run about 5" ground clearance.

I replied to your email as soon as reading this message.I'd really appreciate any info you can share.

Chev Trailblazers (largish straight six-powered SUV)- weird GM only 6 bolt lug pattern.

There must be a 5 lug possibility because every time i try to buy a wheel bearing for a trailblazer i get a 5 lug version and have to return it for the 6 lug version.

Vigo wrote:

Chev Trailblazers (largish straight six-powered SUV)- weird GM only 6 bolt lug pattern.

There must be a 5 lug possibility because every time i try to buy a wheel bearing for a trailblazer i get a 5 lug version and have to return it for the 6 lug version.

next time make sure to tell the counter jockey that it's a "Trailblazer" and not a "Blazer"..

that being said, 80's -early '00's S series 4X4 S trucks and Blazers have a unitized wheel hub/bearing that uses the 5 X 4.75" GM bolt pattern, and according to Rockauto is the same part # that fits a C4 Vette.. now it's just a matter of figuring out if the mounting pattern is the same on the rear and front on the front of a Vette..

next time make sure to tell the counter jockey that it's a "Trailblazer" and not a "Blazer"..

What about the part where i get all the way to putting the rotor back on before it stops working? There is some app out there with a 5 lug hub that fits a trailblazer spindle. Go find it if you care. It's happened to me from 2 different sources. One was Carquest. I dont remember the other.

Vigo wrote:

next time make sure to tell the counter jockey that it's a "Trailblazer" and not a "Blazer"..

What about the part where i get all the way to putting the rotor back on before it stops working? There is some app out there with a 5 lug hub that fits a trailblazer spindle. Go find it if you care. It's happened to me from 2 different sources. One was Carquest. I dont remember the other.

Go to rockauto.com

Look up a wheel hub for an '03 Blazer and one for an '03 Trailblazer. They look a lot alike except for the number of wheel studs.. hence my earlier comment of making sure the counter jockey is looking up the right thing.. then open the box and count wheel studs before paying for it..

The C4 suspension is designed for locating the spindle with cornering and braking forces. It was not designed for drive forces.
The suspension used a fiberglass leaf. It can be converted to coil spring over shock. It would have to land where the axle would go.

open the box and count wheel studs before paying for it..

Some people get their parts delivered in huge batches and signed for by people who aren't the dozen-odd techs that will actually use the parts, but yeah, i try to check my parts when im the one actually ordering or receiving them.

For the record, the second time was actually one of my students trying to fix his own trailblazer. If i'd been a good teacher and breathing heavily over his shoulder i might have noticed the difference before he bolted the hub in.

But since i dont own a trailblazer or a c4 this is not really about my parts ordeals or my job. It is obviously about me running my mouth just to hear myself think while presenting no useful tidbits to the person who actually mentioned using trailblazer spindles and the attendant bolt pattern problem.

sometimes you guys melt my head. but in a good way.

Vigo wrote:

open the box and count wheel studs before paying for it..

Some people get their parts delivered in huge batches and signed for by people who aren't the dozen-odd techs that will actually use the parts, but yeah, i try to check my parts when im the one actually ordering or receiving them. For the record, the second time was actually one of my students trying to fix his own trailblazer. If i'd been a good teacher and breathing heavily over his shoulder i might have noticed the difference before he bolted the hub in. But since i dont own a trailblazer or a c4 this is not really about my parts ordeals or my job. It is obviously about me running my mouth just to hear myself think while presenting no useful tidbits to the person who actually mentioned using trailblazer spindles and the attendant bolt pattern problem.

since this is a site filled mostly with people that do this "car" thing for fun and not as a business, i naturally assumed that you were just some guy that does it for fun and/or minimal profit in your garage.. but i know plenty of people that call their "Trailblazer" a "Blazer" because they think they are the same thing, and since most parts guys around here like to look up Grand Am parts when you say Grand Prix and Grand Prix parts when you say Grand Am, i've learned to open the box and compare to the old if at all possible. and if that isn't possible, i become "that guy" that walks the counter jockey thru the parts lookup process to make sure i get the right stuff..

regarding the AWD C4 vette stuff: i've heard of people using the C5 front suspension with C5 rear hubs to make an AWD setup, and honestly a C4 front suspension isn't really configured that much differently than the C5.. find some hubs that bolt in, relocate some coilovers to the front or rear of the control arm- or rig up a bitchin pushrod setup- and voila..