[Bob Carriere]

Yes Mike that ambulance is built on a Chev 1940 ( could be 39) Chevrolet civilian chassis....possibly shipped as a chassis cowl...... ten bolts on a 7 1/4 circle..... heart centric ...the center hub was exactly 4.75 inches. The front axle spacer *** is drilled with only 5 holes.... the blank reinforcement plate only has 5 holes....all the rims have 10 holes and can be used on all four corners..... the rear axle/rim uses all 10 holes. That was a standard on the Chev at that time and persisted well after the war on civvy trucks.

The odd piece is the 18 inch two piece rim very similar to the standard 16 and 20 inch CMP rims. I have never seen or heard of an 18 in. CMP rim in Canada but then I have not seen it all........ they must have been made in Australia or even India..... all I know is that the humongous press used at GM did half of the rim in one punch....eventually Kelsey Hayes took over the production and proudly stamped their name and date on the rims. Some were made in England as we accidentally stumbled on one in Canada......

The front axle has a 4 1/4 in. hour glass shaped spacer. It is bolted to the five standard studs on the brake drum and extends the center of the front wheel track to the middle of the dual rear axle...... On the C15 the front spacer is only 2 inches and the rear axle runs on one tire but they remain a few inches off from tracking perfectly even.

Such lend lease civvy axles were around 55 to 58 in. track and considerably narrower than the CMP at slightly over 70 inches.....CMP had a wide stance for that period.

So much to learn about these trucks....... and then I starting thumbing through a FORD MASTER ASSEMBLY CATALOGUE FMA-01 and my mind was blown away by the number of various axles, mainly with R-Zeppa joints, including the early GM axles when Ford was short of their own.... and the special kits available to revert the Ford ? GM axle to a Ford/Ford axle when major services were done.

I can imagine the frustration of the poor mechanic looking for the right axle in a large field covered with crates of spare parts.....

Thanks guys.