Hot Rods Need To Identify This Modified Differential/Help

Greetings All,

I have been working on an old SS1, sort of a six cylinder MG. Car manufactured in Jolly Old England.

The original Standard Flathead never really made it to the US. When the owner decided this engine was way past its prime and parts were not available he improvised. A Dodge Flathead was inserted along with a Dodge manual transmission, either 3 or 4 speed, with a Hurst shift kit, sometime in the 50's.

The next owner in pursuit of more speed, saw the Dodge running gear and decided a DeSoto V8 of around 270 cubes, a Hemi, would be even more fun with 20 year old cable brakes and 18" wire wheels.

Apparently, the original rear differential was not up for the task. The hot rod guys of that era, being the ingenious guys they were, had a plan.

They decided to section the rear differential, removing the center of the diff and cutting the axle tubes. They replaced the crown and pinion with a unit from an American car and grafted/welded the whole thing back together. The purpose was to save the look of the brakes and wire wheels. It works BUT the track width has been reduced by 3-4"!

Does anybody recognize this center section they used?

 

Studabaker is my guess; don't think its a Dodge..

 

Might help to see the rear cover in it's entirety. Are there any numbers cast into the housing?

Could be a Spicer rear, they usually have a number like 30 or 44 somewhere on the outside. The cover shape is pretty distinctive on some of them. They were, and are, made in lots of different sizes, and used by many car and truck makers over the years.

 

interesting story, lets see the car!

 

I will grab a few more pics of the rear diff. I actually am quite impressed at the innovation.

The car, was a pile of rust and mismatched parts. Its been stripped to frame as the frame rear members had considerable corrosion from sitting on the ground.

I did find the previous owner that bought the car out of NY with the Dodge engine.

His son gave me numerous pictures.

Currently frame and 4 wheels sits in my workshop under a pile of stuff thatwas pitched there last year. Finally unearthing it.

 

I'm going with European; metric fasteners? I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

No metric, BSF and Whitworth

 

Not a Dodge. Up until the mid 60s, unless it was a truck, all the Dodges had the drop out center section. Gene

 

Looks like a croseley. LOL.

 

Does the diff have BSF and Whitworth, or the chassis in general?

 

Yes, there are both present along with some American fasteners that held the Dodge and DeSoto engines at various times.

Sorry, I did not get out to the shop and even more sorry my shop looks like a bomb went off and did not get back quicker.

Enclosed are a couple other shots of the differential, to be honest, I think it's going to be gone through and then sandblasted and coated. I think it will look good on the shelf. Just so amazed at what they did back then?!

 

looks like a Dana/Spicer/Salisbury cover on it. Did you get a chance to look for numbers? This is a model 44 cover

 

Will look for numbers this weekend.

Any place particular?

Hope its on the meatball and not the tubes.

 

look in this area, both sides, top and bottom, front and back. This is a 60, which is a bigger one.

 

That definitely looks like a small Dana. As Squirrel pointed out it should have a number cast into the back side of the case. You could also take the back cover off and try and google it by the shape of the bolt arrangements if it is lacking the cast in numbers.

 

Greetings All,

First off, this thing hasn't been a car for years. Bear with me, as I've owned it for 16 years and just recently found an original and correct era engine. Works has been done on and off over the years.

I dubbed "The Pile O' Oxides, when I purchased it. Originally thought it was a "Bitsa", bits of this, bits of that. Body had been replaced when the original 30's era unit started to have timber substructure failure along with rust. I bought it thinking the worst case scenario was parting it out for wheels, grille/radiator for at least what I had into the "car"

I researched over the years and determined what it was and what was original and what wasn't. Luckily I was able to contact the son of one of the owners who had a considerable number of photos, a couple are featured here.

The car had been purchased by two other parties before the gentleman I purchased it from. He had owned it for close to 40 years. He deals in antiques and automotive detritus. This car sat on a trailer and was pulled to many a swap meet over the years, not selling until he decided seperating the DeSoto Hemi from the SS/Jaguar remains.

The tires on car had first experienced flat tires allowing the car get closer and later the trailer tires flattened and then the trailer and the SS sank into Mother Earth. The year I bought it a new trailer was sourced and the remains winched out of the ground.

While most of the frame was fine, the rear third of the frame rails and rear apron were perforated with corrosion and very thin.

The rear frame was remade by myself. It was actually here that I noticed someone made from scratch some frame rails for a Ford hot rod, so I did the same. These are some of the pictures of the progress. My goal was to have it sitting on 4 wheels structurally sound, and now it is just perfect.

The wood work is the cowl/firewall which represents the substructure "beneath" the metal body. The differences in dimensions are far from symmetrical, as one side of that cowl was 1 1/2" different from side to side.

Like always, if anybody has knowledge of any correct era parts, feel free to contact me.

I am still assembling the necessary components to rebuild the engine, right now, my only priority is to fit the block to the frame, once that is done the frame will be blasted and coated.

Once coated/painted, the wood substructure will be completed.

The engine, a 2.5 liter unit is getting a stroked billet crank bring displacement to 3.0 liters. The engine, being a Flathead in STOCK form can cruise at 70-75 all day with a top speed of 95 mph. I'm debating a blower, already have to be run off the crank.

Tomorrow after working on my daily driver, I will see about numbers on the differential.

 

Great photos, and great work with recreating the chassis; thanks for posting. The car in the side view looks a lot more like an SS90 or 100 than an SS1. The SS1 often had coupe or sports tourer bodywork as it had a longer wheelbase than the 90 or 100.