We're doing the rear end swap in my '53 - or trying to finish it at least. We're putting in the rear end from a '57 The bolt from the leaf springs is in the way of the plate that the shocks mount to. My dad is wondering if we should just shave off the bolt so that it's flush, and the plate and u bolts will just hold the springs together... or could that potentially be dangerous? We're just running a straight 6, and this is a family car.. so the car isn't going to be drag racing or anything. Or should we drill a hole for the bolt to fit through the plate, or could that weaken the plate? Anyone know anything about this or have any ideas for it!
Leave the bolt and notch the plate. That's what i ended up doing when i did the same swap you are. Even though the inline more than likely will not produce the powered needed to tear thing's up back there, i'd still leave the spring's bolted together as they were. The modified mounting pad will have no effect on anything. Tony
Notching the plate sounds like the right idea, I ground off the extra bolt down to the nut and that got me pretty close but I wish I had notched th one I did.
I think that bolt keeps the rear end from sliding front to back on the spring while you driving the car.
It does, on the top side where the rear end pad sets on the spring pack. It serves to locate the rear and hold the spring pack together.
On the 57 housing, the spring perches have a single hole that's used to locate the spring bolt. That hole has to be REDRILLED 1 1/2" forward and 1/2" inward to RELOCATE the hole, and "center" the rear correctly in the wheelwell. The shock plate will line up with the u-bolts, you will probably have to grind a recess for the u-bolts to pass by the welds that hold the housing halves together, otherwise the u-bolts won't pass by the welds. Just did this swap myself on a 51 Bus Coupe. Not sure your photos are "complete". I hope this makes sense. Butch/56sedandelivery.
Don't you mean 1 1/2 back??? if you move it foward it'll look like an AWB car.. I moved mine BACK 1 1/2 in. to center the wheel in the wheel house since there is no more torque tube.......
Bolt protruding serves 2 purposes; to hold spring together when it isn't confined in the assembly, and to locate and prevent movment of spring in the sandwich. Drill a hole.
Thanks! I have nowhere near the knowledge my dad has (although he's never changed a rear end), but I just felt so uncomfortable about him cutting the bolt on those springs so I wanted to ask here and get some input. *edit* so I guess I didn't say, but yes, we're drilling a hole for the bolt. p.s. pretty sure we drilled the hole correctly... the stock perch mounts on the '53 sit forward on the axle, the 57 mounts are centered on the axle.. so we measured it out and moved the hole forward... made the most sense to me!
With the torque tube, and the "pivot", to swap a tri-five rear in, the spring perch spring locator pin hole gets moved forward, to effectively move the rear end back, that actually centers the rear end in the wheelhouse. But, in my case, if I had drilled the hole back, and therefore moved the rear end forward, I'd have gained 1 1/2" more slip yoke, enough that I would'nt have to get a different driveshaft, probably. It was the concensus over on ChevyTalk.org, on the 49-54 forum, that 1 1/2" forward and 1/2" inward was the correct way. Now, the springs are not parallel in these cars, and the spring perch is "tilted", side to side, relative to the springs. I wonder if it should just be swapped directly in without redrilling the pin hole at all? That would move the rear forward slightly. Drilling a new hole 1 1/2" back would move the rear even more forward, actually, it would be 3" total of forward movement. My tires would rub the forward part of the wheelhouse if the rear were moved 1 1/2" forward, let alone 3". Did you redrill yours inward or outward 1/2", or not at all? Looking at the u-bolts, now that the rear is in the car, they are tilted outward at the top, ever so slightly. My biggest point here, was not to modify the shock plate, but to redrill the spring perch pads, and the shock plate would follow. In my case, the shock plate, well actually traction bars, needed to have the center hole enlarged. They were not large holes, like the stock tri five shock plate, but were only 1/2" holes. I have an old 1968 Hot Rog Mag article where they swap a 283/cast iron Powerglide/tri-five rear into a 53. On the rear end, they removed the spring pads, moved them 1/2" inward, and rewelded them. Then they drilled a new pin locating hole forward of the stock one. That's basically the same thing I did, and how ChevyTalk.org members suggested. I have 2 1/2" of room at the front of the tire and 3 1/2" of room at the back of the tire. Butch/56sedandelivery.
I remember a number of years ago, I did a rear end swap on a '52 Chevy pickup and ended up with the wheels to far forward. After much looking, measuring and magic words, I noticed that if I took the springs off and turned the springs end for end, this moved the spring center bolts back and centered the '57 rearend in the wheel wells, would this work on the cars? Just a thought. Old Time
I did mine just the opposite...I used the stock locating pin and made a plate on top of that and drilled a dowel pin hole to locate the housing pads and pulled the housing back to locate it.... I was also chasing pinion angle issues w/ 3" lowering blocks...
The Jalopy Journal
