What I need to know is, will a Banjo rear end cope with a small block Chev? I'm building a '38 Ford. It's got the original Banjo rear end and Ford 3-speed box, but I want to fit a small block. It'll be either a 283 or 327, so not big power, and I know I should go with a beefier rear, an 8" or 9". But will keeping the Banjo come back to bite me in the ass? Will I have to drive like Grandma all the time to avoid breaking anything?
I'm planning on running a '39 ford trans and a banjo in my Model A. The people I've talked to say do not try to speed shift, or hook the car up. If you hook it up you shear the keys in the axle hubs. If you speed shift you leave the guts of the trans on the ground eventually.
Thanks for your help, thats basically what I've been told too. Plenty of guys ran this setup back in the day, and plenty run it today, but if I want to light up the bags every now and then I should probably beef things up. I guess I was hoping someone would tell me they run this setup and can do skids all day long without a problem.
My car has a 322 Nailhead, Dynaflow and a 32 V8 axle. The car was built in 53 in this configuration. Now the Dynaflow is pretty smooth so not a lot of shock loading, but still it happens, for example if you happen to shift from D to R too abruptly at a fast idle. I only had a problem once when I fitted rear tires that were way too fat and sticky. It was a mistake, and it killed an axle. That axle was rewelded when I had trouble finding a spare, and the repaired axle failed a year later (not enough weld penetration) even though I drove pretty much like grandma for that year. It got to the point where I was tired of driving the car like that and started getting on it again. Soon after, bang. I will be replacing everything with some NOS axles I found. Plenty of rods used banjo rears back in the day with all kinds of motors. My opinion is that if the axle tapers and keyways and rear hubs are in perfect shape, if the rear axle nuts are properly torqued, if the tapers are properly assembled dry (some also lap them together), if you are running fairly tall and skinny tires on a lightweight wheel, if the car is not too heavy, and if you don't drive the way all of us actually like to drive, you will be OK. Definitely install rear hub retainers. Eventually you will probably bang an axle. The retainers will prevent you from losing a wheel.
One other thing: running that banjo enables you to keep the torque tube, and that is a big plus because you will have perfect rear suspension geometry. You inevitably introduce interference movements when you split the rear rods (or a 4 bar or whatever) and combine that with the buggy spring.
Back in 59 my 37 had a 303 Olds. in it if it was blowing the 37 gears out the bottom of the tranny it was shearing axle keys in the rear hubs. I carried a square shafted screw driver with me so I could get home by pounding the screw driver into the hub and cutting it off with a hacksaw.
It isn't that it can't be done, but rather, in 2009, lots of us have better things to do on Saturday afternoon than replace driveline parts (again). The reason the later stuff became more and more dominant is that the older stuff is more likely to break.
In my case the tires smoke before the rear breaks. The 3spd box is the weakest link. IMHO. You don't have to drive it like a grand mother but it won't take a teenagers abuse either. You won't be doing much speed shifting. 330HP 71 LT-1 39 trans and 40ish rear.
There is nothing wrong with a SBC to early ford trans and banjo rearend. But dont do burnouts unless you want to be fixing what you broke. It will usually not brake if is it is in gear and moving. At that point they will handle the power of the SBC and do just fine from what I have learned.
The cure for the axle problem is to switch to later axles. Hot Rod Works sell them and everything you need to make the change, thus eliminating the shearing of keys.
I run this setup in my roadster. Chevy 283, done well, '39 style box and '40 rear. As long as you don't run real stickey tires, torque the axles to 200 ft. pd. and don't bring it off the line at 8 grand. Works great for me and there ain't nothing more fun to drive. So far so good, I just can't be too stupid, not that I havn't tried.
Thanks everyone for sharing real life banjo experiences I feel much better about my decision. I'm running a '36 rear with 3.70 gears, a '39 trans, and hard skinny tires.
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