Inliners International Forums General Discussion Drive Train Open rear end for 1952 Chevy

What is the best open rear end to use in a 52 chevy deluxe and can I use the stock trans.

A 1955-57 Chevy car works well for that. You just need to re-drill the springs.

You then will need an "open drive" trans.

Good luck, John M.,3370....

I would think that you can use the original transmission if you get a tail shaft made with a sliding spline behind the front universal joint.

i put a rearend from an S10 4wd under my '50 coupe. the 4wd rear is wider thn the 2wd which would be too narrow. the 4wd rear is 3/4" more narrow than the original. all that's needed is new spring pads. many were in S10 blazers with towing packages which means posi, & a broad range of gear ratios is available. the boneyards around here are full of them & they're reasonably priced. these 7.5" ring gear axles were used in f-bodies & many other gm applications for many years. while it is not what you'd want in your drag car with the big block v-thing, it should suit our inline cars just fine.
robert.

Only problem with these years is that changing to open drive means that you'll pretty much have to change everything from the bellhousing back. It's a big job, but if your stock parts all need going through anyway it's perfect time for the change. But, if you just want higher gears find a torque tube from a powerglide car, 3:55 ratio.

One major problem is that your 50 bellhousing to trans bolt pattern is weird, so for open the open you need a 55 or later bellhousing. Once that's done you have many more modern transmissions to choose from. A perfect donor car would be a 55-6-7, for the all the parts you will need.

Before you begin, give Buffalo a call (see his ad running on the home page). This man is probably the best in the country when it comes to knowing what fits what on these early chevs, plus he makes a zillion trick conversions for these cars to make this project really work in the end.
Best of luck