Going from torque tube to open driveshaft,anyone done this?

I have a small block that is going into my girlfriends 53 chevy.I couldn't find a powerglide tranny to replace into her car last year when it started to go,so I bought a 89 chevy conversion van off of a buudy for a couple hundred bucks,and I took the whole drivetrain out of the van which was fuel injected,and switched it back to carbureted.My question is can I keep the stock rearend, or do I need to change it? Being that the existing driveshaft was enclosed and this one is not, I didn't know if they made some kind of adapter or not.Has anyone done this?

 

Never done it personally, but a few friends have. Folks normally just use Camaro or similar rear ends. I've never heard of an adapter, but they probably exist.

 

I never see this mod on a chevy rear end !, but i have done it on my ford one

 

I`m doing something similar...283/t5 in with a stock ford rearend with a HotRod works open drive kit...will the 40 rearend hold up??I`m getting lots of conflicting advise from people....are they strong enough for street use with a bit of abuse every now and then?

sorry to tag this on your post, but it`s similar and I`d expect the same people will have answers to the prob.
regards.

 

Just finished this on my 41 Pickup. Used www.hotrodworks.com stuff. Bought both the open drive conversion and the torsion bar. Yep, it is a little pricey, but it works.

I'm running the banjo behind a somewhat hopped up 50 flathead with a 47 open driveline trans.

The only hard part of the conversion was disconnecting the damned OG driveline from the pinion!

Mike

 

Oh, you can get the hotrodworks open driveline conversion kit (not the torque arm or radius rod mounting kit) from Speedway for about $10 cheaper. Strange.

 

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will the 40 rearend hold up??

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I ran a 40 rearend with a 39 trans and a 350 chevy last summer with bias plys = one bent axle and sheared three axle keys

Im replacing mine with a nine inch right now.

 

Thanks for all of the input,it's good to hear from other people who have done this.

 

Backyard Bomber,

I would think a little bit about how much work it is going to take to convert the rear end, and if you think it would be worth it. The axles in these rear ends are weak as shit. It may have just been the axles in my rear but if broke the splines right off the passenger side axle in my 54 Chevy.

Now this wasn't done with a moderatly powered small block Chevy. All it took was an accidental 2000rpm lauch (foot slipped off wet clutch pedal when rappin the pipes) from the stock 6 banger that was running like shit.

The stock axles are only 10 splines per side, and not strong at all. But if you have more time and ambition than money, go for it.

Just my two cents.

Geno