So the my rear decided to grenade and lock itself up on the highway at 75. (fun times) I'm not ready to do a custom rear yet so I would like to just find a new center section to get the car back on the road asap. I just need to know what years shared the same rear ****er center section as the 53. Also, if anyone in the tristate area or anywhere relatively close to northeastern, pa has a center section that they don't need get at me. I want the car back on the road for our (Rumblers) nomad show in terryville, ct this weekend.
well i dont think its close enough to you unless you can drive down this week and back. but the guy that i went to today would sell you the rear outa his 54 at a fair price. he is in cosby tn. about 5 miles from the interstate 40 exit 345
There is a 54 sunliner sitting in an abandoned junkyard not too far from me. It had an auto and from what I can gather it should have a 3.31 rear. I drive on the highway a lot and with that rear and a t5, I should have some pretty good highway gears. I only got my car on the highway for about 15 miles belted my 3.90 rear went kaboom so I'm not really sure if I liked those gears or not. I'm also not sure if the guy will let me rob the center section or not. Old Lady's mad...thanks for the heads up but I think my old lady would be super mad if I was gone a few days for a center section and then left all weekend for a show. I think it certainly sounds like a good idea but I'm thinking it might ruffle some feathers.
If He won't sell just the center section it would be almost as easy to swap the whole rear,probably should pull the drums and check out the brakes you may want to swap in your parts.Retro Jim is in Penn also I think He may have what you need too,send him a pm.1949-56 will interchange.
I have all new bearings, brakes, cables, lines, etc and my rear is already painted. I basically just want to grab that center section just for the ring and pinion. My pinion has one chipped tooth so i meed to change it. I thought I was going to get away with hot tanking the housing and re***embling everything with new bearings and races but that one damn tooth foiled me. Thanks Jeff, I will hit Jim up but I think we spoke about meeting up before and if I recall correctly, he is like 4 or 5 hours from me.
I put a 56 pumpkin in my 54 housing, I had to use the 54 spider gears because the 56 axles have more splines. I already had new bearings on the 54 axles. Also, the 56 ring gear is enough larger that it bolted in but would not turn. More heat and a BFH fixed that.
nailhead65- i have a rear from a 55 customline. it's still on the car. i'm about 45 minutes from pittsburgh, zipcode is 15010
Pittsburgh is about 5 hours from me but thank you. I will definitely keep that in mind if this rear from the 54 doesn't work out.
49-56 is true. The automatic cars had 3:31 gears in them. Swapped into a 3 spd car makes modern highway speeds a dream.
car show? road trip? how far is the conneticut show from you as opposed jims or rockabilly's place? might have to forgo the trip to ct, especially if you can get the thing at a reasonable price. maybe you can meet halfway and pay a little extra for his time? well, at least some gas money anyway.
The CT car show is our (Rumblers Nomads) annual show. I've made it with a car every year so far, even before I became a member. Now that I'm a club member I'm going to stick with that tradition. I found a 3.31 center section locally but the guy wants $200 for it and its been sitting in a junk yard for at least 20 years. I have a t5 in my car and would love the 3.31 but I just need to get something in my car now. Luckily, a friend with a custom shop has a 3.90 center section for me. I only have to drive an hour and a half and since I gave him a center section for his salt flat car, he is going to return the favor. Yay karma!
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