Have a 37 chevy sedan would like to chance rear but want to keep 6 lug. Any ideas on what would fit? Going with 5 speed open drive shaft. Wonder if you can change center section to 55-64 unit and keep 37 axles? Thanks for any help.
Way too wide for his car. 55/59 Chevy pickup are right at 61 inches. Some of the small pickup 6 lug rears are pretty close but data on wms to wms is sketchy at best. Searching says the stock 37 rear axle should be 57 inches WMS to WMS. I'm thinking that the plain Jane two wheel drive first gen Chevy Colorado rear comes close but finding solid info on Chevy Colorado boards is a real challenge. Looking more it seems that the Narrower of the first gen Colorado 2 wheel drive rears should be about 59 inches that is going to limit wheel selections. This link doesn't give a width for the plain two wheel drive but gives info on available gear ratios and how to figure them out if a guy goes wrecking yard hunting. https://talk.classicparts.com/threads/colorado-rear-end-swap-information-pics-added-1-3-16.22271/ That is a 47/55.1 Chevy truck group though and they are looking for the 61 and change width rear. Sneaking over to the Toyota Tacoma boards it looks like 84/88 Tacomas have a 57 inch wms to wms rear This gives the width range for different rears. I didn't check on gear ratios though.
Years ago I helped my brother put a later rear under a '49 Chevy pickup, with a 6 lug pattern. He sourced a rear from a later bread truck at a truck yard. The width was perfect.
If you can find a 64-69 Chevy pickup rear end, that would probably be the closest "modern" Chevy rear. They're usually worn out by now, so you have to be sure what you're getting. I think some folks are still pulling them out to replace with 5 lug rears, so there might be some available somewhere. 70 and later Chevy truck rears are a bit wider, but they did stay mostly the same width and six lug on 4x4s until 1987. Unfortunately the 2wd trucks went to 5 lug in 1971, so most won't be the correct bolt pattern. But you can buy 4x4 axles to put in the 2wd rear. I don't know about the Toyotas...you might see if you can find one and look at it, but I would not use one, just because. Maybe you'd be fine with it.
You can call Currie Enterprises and have a 9 inch rear built in whatever WMS and wheel bolt pattern you want.
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