flathaed v8 in front of model A rear end question

I scored a nice running '41 engine and I am planning on shoehorning it into my A frame. I'm locating a F1 crossmember to hold up the '39 trans. My question is can I get away with using the stock A rearend or should I use that old '47 rear I've got stashed? the engine is stock and I was gonna convert it to juice brakes anyway. Thanks guys for all youre input!

 

I'm sure people have done it....but how long will it live?

Personally I would use the v8 rear end. If the model A rear would work and live up to a v8 do you think old Henry would have re-tooled for a different rear end.....

 

That 47 rear would be the ticket. You already have the brake setup on it.
I believe the 47 is an open drive shaft too.

 

It's been done plenty of times.

 

Pete the '47 is a closed drive shaft out of a sedan. I like the spring directly over the top of the housing were Henry put it and was hoping not to have to cut the driveshaft on the v8 rear if I went that route.It would be too slick to bolt the A rear right up to the trans and just put juice brakes on it. Just trying to avoid the big pitfalls and sweat,ha-ha

 

It's easy to get spring over. Check out my build using model A perches on a v8 rear. page 8 post #152

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509164&page=8

 

Thanks Hitchhiker,I'll check it out. Man I gotta say there is a TON of good info on here that otherwise would be trial and error for me-thanks guys for the input!

 

I just did this on my 29 A sedan. I put 3.55 gears in the rear and using a 39 box. I was leary about doing it but had someone put the rearend together that i trusted. I don't have a lot of miles on it yet, but I've been plenty hard on it during early test drives.

 

T&A thanks for the info. I figure those rears must be pretty tough if the midget guys used and abused them. Did you have to do anything different with the driveshaft?

 

no, i managed to squeeze motor and tranny in and kept stock length on driveshaft. I would recommend pulling the torque tube out and make sure the drive shaft is not weakened by a bunch of bad pits from being old and god know whats been in it.

if you ever get up to KC area, let me know and you can take a look.

 

I have had a stock model "A" rear end in my A pick up for over ten years with a '39 merc flathead. It broke one axle in its seventh year but other than that no problem. It copped a fair bit of abuse, it even ran at the drags, maybe I was lucky but driven normaly I cant see a problem.
Cheers Dago.