I've been gone from here a long time... long story, divorced & remarried last year plus a lot of other stuff going on. Anyway I've managed to make some slight progress here & there with my nailhead-powered '51 Stude pickup. The '56 322 I have is the "hi-po" version, 4-bbl. & factory dual exhaust. It had a Dynaflow behind it which I did not get. I just bought an old Cragar #310 aluminum bellhousing off of eBay to adapt an early nailhead to a Ford T-85 trans. What I need to know is what all do I need to collect in the way of a flywheel, pressure plate, clutch, throwout bearing, clutch fork, etc. to make all this work together? As of now all I have is the 322 & the Cragar bellhousing. Don't know whether this was intended to be used with Buick stick parts or Ford parts or what?? Any help or pointing me in the right direction will definitely be appreciated! Have made a little progress on the truck (which was a Cal. vehicle, very minimal rust). Will try to post some pics once I get a chance to get them. One other thing, need to swap out the rear end. I have heard that Stude wagon rears (Dana 44's) will bolt in, correct spacing spring-to-spring. Any help there is also welcomed. I am trying to build this thing as it would have been done around '61 or '62. Would really like to have limited-slip... THANKS IN ADVANCE!!! Rindy
You don't need to swap out the rear, it is probably already a Dana. At least the 56 pickup I had was. 4:27 gears with a 327 sbc , 4 speed. Never broke anything as a 20 year old driving it. Can't help on the nailhead stuff.
cool...and welcome to Studie ownership....yes allot of trucks had posi's...in the dana 44 with a 5on5 bolt patteren....go with a car for a 5 on 4 1/2 bolt pattern.....source an old mail Jeep late 70's up to early 90's for the dana 44 posi unit if you can't find one...just get the posi out...that jeep axle is short one side long the other....and is 5 on 5 1/2.....but not to much wear on those postal jeeps....
Life has a way of getting us off course sometimes, glad to hear you are getting back on your Stude project. For the trans adaptation you'll need a Buick stick flywheel, a pressure plate to match and a clutch disc that is the correct diameter for the flywheel friction surface with the Ford transmission splines. Lots of people are using the hydraulic throw out bearings these days - I've never used one so someone else will have to chime in on that topic. It sure saves scrounging up a fork and building linkage. The pilot bearing will need to fit the Buick crank and have an I D suitable for the Ford input shaft. You will need to bolt the engine, bellhousing and trans together and verify that the input shaft will mate to the pilot bearing, you may need an extra long one to get proper support or you may have to shorten the tip of the input shaft a little if it bottoms out in the crank. Lots of details to look at. For a rear end, I used an 8 3/4" Mopar out of a mid-sixties Fury in my '50 Stude pickup. It was a virtual bolt in. With a little grinding it sat right on the Stude springs with new U-bolts. The Stude driveshaft even bolted right up! Mine had the old 6 with a 3spd/OD trans at the time. Later on it got a BBC/TH400. Like the other guys said - Pictures!! (sorry for the wordiness)
Stay away from the hydraulic clutch they are nothing but trouble especially the internal release bearing style. Internal leakage lines that wont seal etc.
Just checked my Stude manuals & slid underneath with a flashlight & a helper. I do indeed have a Dana 44. Its a one-wheeler, ration is about 4.89! Would like to find a posi rear end in a somewhat numerically-lower ratio (3.70 - 4.11 or so). But it'll work as is for the time being.
Thanks Bob for the info! I'll start scrounging this stuff... also need to come up with a T85 tranny but I guess they're not extremely hard to find. I'm thinking I want to go with an overdrive since its a 3-speed & I want to end up with a decent gear in the rear end. Thanks for the tip on the Mopar rear end also!
I know its been over 2 years... won't try to make excuses. The new honey is keeping me busy with all sorts of stuff... But here's an update on the truck with a few pics. As a reminder, my plan is to build a '61 - '62 - era period-correct custom street truck. The obvious - bed, tailgate & rear fenders are ready for paint. The pic of the bed upside down was taken at the sandblaster's. I had my body guy weld up the factory horizontal seam along the upper part of the bed sides (to make it seamless)... Also the hood is ready for paint & it has been nosed. Using '59 Caddy taillights in the vertical bed ends (2 per side) and a pair of '50 Pontiac lights in the panel below the tailgate. Probably won't run a rear bumper... or maybe nerfs down the road. Since the grille was pretty banged up I got hold of a NOS '57 - up Transtar fiberglass grille (last pic). I think a chrome repop '57 Chevy truck bumper will fit that new grille nicely. Just will have to fab some brackets. The '57-up grille uses different headlight buckets than the '51 truck so I got a pair of NOS buckets for the Stude coupes / hawks that fit the 'glass grille perfectly. I have a problem with finding headlight bezels. The originals are not being repopped. I need a pair of round chrome or stainless bezels that are either 8 1/2" or 8 5/8" outside diameter. Can't be any bigger or they won't fit right on this grille. Any ideas what might fit & be available repopped? Both doors are at my body guy's now, have been stripped & sandblasted. Got all new rubber seals, gaskets & window channels etc. for the truck. All interior metal trim has been powder coated. Seat has been totally rebuilt & reupholstered, roll & pleat vinyl. 322 Buick motor is apart down to the short block, heads are at the local machine shop now. Not supposed to use hardened valve seats on these heads for a couple of reasons, so I got a new set of 364 exhaust valves which are a little larger diameter than the 322 ones. Since I still don't have my shop finished (ceiling finished with insulation), haven't fired up the heat yet so progress comes to a halt in the winter. Hopefully this will be the last winter for this situation. Also planning to run steelies with spiders & trim rings & repop bias-ply tires (already have the fronts on the truck). That's about it for now.... will post more pics as progress continues. Rindy