Inliners International Forums General Discussion Drive Train '52 Ring & Pinion, Powerglide Car vs. Truck

I'm having a torque tube rear end rebuilt for my '50 sedan. I know that the car R&P gears are different from the trucks. But..., do the rear ends set up for powerglide cars use the same R&P gears sizes as the manual cars or do they use the truck-sized gears?

I wanted 3.55 gears and bendix brakes for my manual '50 car. I ordered a car R&P set but I'm pretty sure I inadvertently got the set for trucks. Predictably, they wouldn't fit at all in the original '50 rearend but they fit great in the donor '52 rearend that came out of a powerglide car. I think a series of mistakes (including my own) has luckily resulted in everything turning out even better than expected but I'm just trying to figure out what happened.

-Dan

3:55 is the production gear in Powerglide Chevys
with open rears.

You are correct, the truck rear end gears DO NOT fit in the passenger car housing. There should be lots of 3:55 'powerglide' rear ends around Fresno. Contact some of the many VCCA or Inliners Int. Chapter folks down there. I just sold my last 54 (3:70 ratio) set, having changed all but one of my remaining cars over to open drive. Best of luck and stay out of the FOG if you can.

Everything has worked out fine. I had already picked up a '52 powerglide rearend, mostly for the bendix backing plates. It wasn't the plan but it's now the one getting rebuilt with fresh truck gears. I'm just trying to figure out if the factory intentionally used truck gears for powerglide cars. By the way, I picked up the rearend at Turner's, where I had also picked up a good 261. Just between you and me, he might have a couple left.

-Dan