I love hot red, came by it honest! Love that two-tone dash as well. I just font know if I'm going back with the original red or something modern..and even hotter.
Hey gentlemen, hope your monday is going by quickly and smoothly! I am going to be hitting a couple wrecking yards this week to possibly purchase a good rearend to swap into this truck, my question is: What rearend would yall recommend? Im looking for something with a truly steep rearend gear because I want to run with this original tranny for a while.
steep gearing? or highway gearing? With a 350 engine, you can get away with pretty mild gearing, I'd look for something in the low 3s. like 3.08 or 3.36 or something. Lower (numerical) if you want to do more highway driving, higher if you want it to keep the nice off the line acceleration. Do the trick of counting pinion turns for one revolution of both rear tires (or two revs of one tire, if the other is stopped so it can't turn). 70s Camaro rears are a pretty good fit but they're 5 lug. 70s-80s 4x4 chevys have 6 lugs, they're a bit wider though and might not fit with 8" wheels.
A lot of F body (camaro firebird) rearends are 3.08 but they are 5 lug. Not sure what gear ratios are available for the Troopers that had 6 lugs but they are narrow also. Damned if you do damned if you don't if you haven't sent back the two rims you wanted to swap you might just see what rearend comes up. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Yes I meant highway gears. I had an 84 camaro sitting out here, complete sans engine till about two years ago. Damn. I'm considering doing the disc brake upgrade to the front with 5 lugs so a 5 lug reared wouldn't be an issue in the long run....
84 camaro does not have a rear that I'd want to put in an old truck. little 7.5" ring gear, and I think it's a bit wide. 71-81 would be more appropriate, they have the 8.5" ring gear and the width is real close.
I have a posi 10 bolt rear out of an '83 cop Caprice. Pretty stout with the 8.5" ring gear...and the tubes are a bit bigger than your typical 10 bolt. The downside if you're matching the front is that it is 5 bolt on 4.75" pattern, but I did a disc front swap with the same bolt pattern so it works well on my truck. EDIT: I forgot to mention that the gearing is 3:18...when I swap gears I'll likely go lower, but these will work for now with my M22 / 327 combo.
Thanks again, gents. That 4speed/Caprice combo sounds right where I want to be. Was the width a good match? Was the disc swap a pain in the ass? My little brother did a disc conversion on his 67 Camaro SS and it fought him the entire way, beginning to end.
BTW - that original rearend with the drop out pumpkin is an Eaton H-033 IIRC. I had one in my '62 C-10. Really cool rearend, but weak axles, expensive bearings, brakes too small, and gears to low. Gears can be swapped, but you still have all the other short comings. best part about them is they look sorta like a 9 inch Ford, but aren't. Traded out to an '85 Blazer reaend, cut off perches, weld new ones from CPP or the like. Made a panhard bar mount exacly liek orginal and mounted it. Even the e-brake was easy to hook up. Now great gears and really improved the brakes. Highly suggest an open rear as opposed to Gov-Lock if you go this route. Please don't ask me how I know.
Thanks El Greco! Im guessing this was an S-10 style blazer? I have a late-80s sitting at the farm that grandad was using for parts a few months back. What is a "gov-lock"? Im not familiar with the term I am afraid.
mid 80s they still made real blazers, they were mostly 4x4s and had a 6 lug rearend. Gov lock is a limited slip "posi" rearend, but it did not have springs, so it was not locked all the time...it had a weird geared governor that would engage the clutches when the difference in speed between the axles reached a certain RPM. But if you tried, it was pretty easy to make the whole thing explode. It's easy to spot one if you pull the rearend cover off, look for the little clockwork mechanism
The S10 has the smaller bolt circle 4.75 like the f body. If the bolt pattern isn't gonna be an issue why not ford 8.8? There's a lot of stock ratios and posi are easy to find. FYI the explorer has heavier axles than the mustang (31spline vs 27spline) Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Im learning, thanks to all of you. I dont know a damned thing about anything "ford" so I will have to do some homework on the 8.8 rearend. I thought I knew a lot about cars until I came here...now I feel like that dork in shop class who cannot operate a ratchet! haha! We actually had a 9" out of an old lincoln lying around here for a while, my grandad is a collector of all kinds of crap. The barnyard might as well be a wrecking yard.
The 8.8" ford rear end is pretty similar to the Chevy 12 bolt (like was used in full size Chevy trucks from 1963-early 80s)....same size gears, similar design with a rear cover, and C clip axles. But it has Ford axles and brakes so it fits Ford wheels not Chevy wheels, and it was used in many different Ford vehicles from the mid 80s to present day.
Gov-loc , yikes! Just seeing that pic is like looking down a gun barrel. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
There is a 67 chevy pickup out there, half-ton, longbed, complete. Not sure what that rearend is but it is six-lug.
Ok, in another world I'm a jeep guy.....that being said, I have broken my fair share of u joints, yokes, axles, rearends on so on. Eric, there's always something to learn don't get discouraged, I will admit i have gaine a lot of knowledge by doing stuff wrong, sometimes multiple times RIP high school Chevelle Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Steal the whole rear set up out of that thing and ditch the leaf springs in yours Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Thats an idea...I hadnt considered. It was actually the second brand-new pickup granddad bought after the '59.
67 pickup probably has 3.73 gears, which are pretty close to 3.90 in the stock rear. On a 66 suburban I used to have, I got a mid 70s van rearend from the junkyard for cheap, and swapped the 3.07 gears (including the differential) from the van rear, into the 66 to replace the 3.73 gears...made it a nice highway drive, and it was pretty affordable. The 67 rear should be the same width as the 59 rear, at least it's real close. But they also have a tendency to wear out the axles at the wheel bearing area, and the pinion gear gets cracks at the base of the teeth. So inspect it carefully before deciding to use it.
Oh hell that damned thing probably has 250,000 miles on it. A good portion of it on the farm. Back to the drawing board. I need to get out to some of the older (better) wrecking yards around here and take a list of possibilities to look for.
And thats from the days when a truck was a tool and got WORKED! Hell I didn't know there was such a thing as a pick up bigger than 1/2 ton for years. We just piled and pulled with what we had. I bet y'all got some decent yards around there here in DFW everything is picked clean. It's easier and more cost effective around here to buy a whole ride, get what you need and part the rest....them off to the scrap yard. I know the trooper rears were brought up (Dana 44) with 6lug, but they are real low gears like 4.30s and such. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
GMC pickups from the 60s ran dana 44 and 60 rears, posi is common, they are 6 lug, and 3.54 gears are common, plus they work with normal 8" rims. I have a 3.54 posi dana 60 in my 59, had it for like 25 years
Sorry to respond so late into the conversation. I don't remember the exact width, but I can say that I spent quite a bit of time looking for an axle within 1/2 inch either way and THIS one was 1/4 inch narrower than I was looking for. It actually worked out really good because I was given a pair of BFG 275/60/R15's tires that have about 50% tread on them and they are going to fit as long as I use a 8 in rear wheel so the sidewalls don't bulge too much. A 275/60/15 is: 28 inches tall and 10.8 inches wide. and the tire below gives almost the same effect with a narrower width, so it would be an easier fit, especially with the rear axle I'm using. A 235/70/15 is: 28 inches tall and 9.25 inches wide The 235 will be the tire I go to when I either burn these off and/or can afford new rear tires. Why? Just to be safe and not risk scrubbing the sidewalls on the fender.
Oh yeah, the front brake swap was simple. It is the one offered at Jim's Chevrolet (and probably others) where you use a caliper adapter plate on the original spindles (a kit they offer) and purchase one of the OEM rotors on the suggested rotor list that comes with the adapter plates. You also want to upgrade to tapered bearings, which offers a better ride and longevity than do the original spindle ball type bearings. The dual master cylinder is one off a '63 Vette and the mounting bracket is the one offered by CPP.
X2 on the bearings that was a nice improvement. Buzz theres no issue with the rotors to the old spindles? I misunderstood I guess I stayed away because I thought the spindle had to be machined. I have given serious thought to the car hub swap just because I hate my sometimes leaky/low ratio rearend and wouldn't replace it with a 6lug Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Gonna take a look at it this weekend, probably going to do the 5-lug disc conversion at the same time as well. This thing may have 2.56 gears?
2.73, 3.08, 3.55, 3.73, etc... The ratios available were different for the 10 bolt vs the 12 bolt, but I don't think any of them were higher than 2.73. Is it the correct width? I'm pretty sure the axle I just took out was out of a '73 Impala...it has the 3.08's. The gears in it are very sloppy and the brakes need a complete rebuild, otherwise I would have left it.
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