my mom just bent an axle in her 56, and since we've been thinking about changing to a lower gear anyways i figured it would be just as easy to swap out the whole thing. it would need to be the same bolt pattern and the same length or an inch or so narrower to fit her wheels/tires in the wheel wells still. other than that i don't mind cutting off different type bracketry to make it work, and also wouldn't mind updating to rear disk at the same time. thanks for any suggestions
I put a 9" out of a '70 Mustang in my '55 years ago... and also had an 8" out of a '68 in there for a while too. Just measure the overall width where the wheels mounts to where the wheel mounts... and then look on the net for one of those sites that lists all the widths of all the rear ends... someone posted a link a long while back... Sam.
http://www.dfwmotorsport.com/Fairlane/9inchrearends.htm Might have been this one......I do not know....
Out of the CCI Tech book: Stock 55-57 rearend = 53 1/8" backing plate to backing plate and 60 3/8" outside of drum to outside of drum. They state these rearends will work best in their opinion. GM rearend that are 2 3/4" narrower: 65-67 chevy II/Nova GM rearend that are same width: 66-67 Chevelle 67-81 Camaro 68-76 Nova GM rearend that are 1 1/4" wider: 68-72 Chevelle 70-72 Monte Carlo With narrower or same width, you can use a wider wheel and tire combo, a wider limits you. In addition it states that Camaro and Chevy II rearends were easier to install b/c of little modification (spring pad removal) due to the fact they were original leaf spring cars. The Chevelle rearends were original 4-link cars, so all original brackets must be removed. Sorry for rambling, good luck and I hope this helped you some. I'm sure there are plenty of other rearends capable of doing the job. Jeremy
not sure how much horse power your planning on,, ....but an 80's malibu(or 80's G body ) will give you an extra 3/4 inch on each side..
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