borrowed quote from another thread does anyone know if these axles can cope with the power of a 350 chev engine with a th350 trans the reason i ask is because i have just purchased a '50 merc and there are some bits missing from the axle so i don't want to buy parts for a axle that will break thanks
I have some experience with this one. If you are planning to drive the car reasonably you will do just fine. A steady diet of drag racing and neutral drops, probably not so good...
thanks for the quick reply it would be nice to run the 1/4 now and then so does anyone know what axle would fit between the fender skirts
I do not know HOW AVAILABLE a 57 to 72 F-100 rear end is in England ... but that's what most around here run. They even have the same wheel bolt pattern as your Mercury. If hunting a F-100 rear ... try to get one from 1966 or so UP ... because they have self adjusting brake hardware. And a lot of them were automatic ... so they have a 3.25 or 3.50 gear ratio
You won't break these axles - there are plenty of cars out here using a Dana 44 centre - look at all the Jag rears, and 'vette rears - they're all Dana 44's One thing though - your ratio may not suit a T350 - might be 3.92 or 4.27 - so you might want to swap the crown wheel and pinion with a Jag or run a T700 overdrive
Very good point! One that I drove allot with this rear end was a Model A coupe with a powerglide - and 4.11 in rear! From phoenix to Austin TX. and back. To put this into perspective, 850 miles each way! Oh, and an average speed of about eighty! My only defense against the noise? My portable C.D. player went to 11!
The mercs used a dana 44. I had some 1st person dealings with one under my trusty ol 49 ford pickup with a 4.27 ratio. I broke it twice. Once thought the cast iron cruiso was in reverse but it took so long to go into gear and I was impatient....gassed it just as it went into reverse and broke an axle shaft.....did the same thing later and something in the punkin broke...all my fault. Be sane with it and it'll live.
Disclaimer: I am probably guilty of overengineering things...a habit from my days of driving Jeeps offroad! I just went through the same drill with my '50 Merc. It had a Dana 44 (not all do...some have Dana 41s). I threw a 4-71 blower on the flathead so the HP is running just over 300. The challenge with this kind of horse power is not the center section...it is the axle tubes which are about 2 1/4 inches in diameter on this early version of the Dana 44. I am told they increased the diameter of the tubes later on because of the high tube to center section failure rate. If you are going to step on the stupid pedal with gusto periodically you may end up with some challenges like spinning the tubes on the pumpkin. I believe a mid '60s T-bird with a 9" axle may be a good fit if you are willing to play with your wheel backspacing a little bit. I looked into this but because I was converting to disc brakes I decided to build a 9" axle with 3" tubes from scratch so I could get the correct width (59 inches) and notched the frame to accomodate the disc brakes while keeping my wheel backspacing consisent with the front allowing the wheels to track properly.
I have run a dana 44 in my 49 monarch out of 48 f1 for about 30 years with no problems, except for the low gearing sucks. I finally changed the 350 turbo to a 2004r which helped some. I am running a 400 sbc engine.
My main 2 problems with using the stock rear end is ... 1 ) gear ratios are so low ... highway spped means high RPMs 2 ) parts availibility ... You are in ENGLAND ... finding stuff for a 9 inch Ford has to be easier than finding parts for a 49/50/51 Mercury. ___________________________________-
thanks for the info guys iv been offerd a F1 axle for the bits that are missing and im going to look into the jaguar diff for a change of ratio as they are plentifull over here. once again thanks
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