Thinking of putting jag rear in my 48 chevy project truck, anyone have one? interested in all feedback on this as it will be a first for me already installed camaro front clip.want for daily driver. thanks in advance.
Why WOULD'NT he want to is a better question. Jag IRS and IFS is truly cheap to acquire, simple to install and already has the older CHevy 5 on 4-3/4" lug pattern. You get fully independant rear suspension and disc brakes. If you're of a mind to doll it up? Well, almost nothing looks cooler than Jag IRS out of the factory carrier and fully polished/chromed. Original poster, go to Ozrodders.com for a lot of articles about installations in a variety of venicles. I had both Jag IFS and IRS in my '46 Chevy pickup and it worked great. I didn't install it, just bought it that way but never had an issue with either.
trck is to be full custom and daily driver ave heard these rears are great handling and ride is suposed to be good as well as good looking.
My friend **** Valenzuela has run Jag IFS and IRS under his all Henry 32 three window coupe for over 40 years. It has never given him a bit of trouble.
I say go for it. I am installing a Jag front clip in mine. Tried to get the rear out of the donor car, but got frustrated and left it. So wishing I would have tried harder for the rear. I've seen your albums for this truck. INSANE amount of work your doing, but it's coming along beautifully!! I'm sure whatever you decide is gonna be slick. This has inspired me to go back to the salvage yard and try again.
Recipe: - I found a Craigslist $300 delivered IRS with what turned out be a chevy style u-bolt yoke. - A think (sorry) 70 el camino driveshaft. which is great for moving the rearend back an 1" or so to center in the wheel well. - 60 chevy 3 speed The frame had like 1/4" plate weldded already to the sides & rough-in c-notched. I took the mounting pad off the jag & trimed off a I think (sorry) 1" to 1/2" wedge like, on each side & simply wedged it up in there, added reinforcment boxing plates/gussets & a torque beam in the middle near the pinion.
There is a reason that the Jag IRS is so cheap...they are easy to find but wait til you have to buy parts for one. While this was a hot setup 50 years ago, there are better options today. You can get a Lincoln MKVIII IRS for about the same money and now you have options for gearing, suspension, and braking. Upgrade with Cobra parts and you have a super performing IRS that's not an antique.
I've seen them under T's & Model A's and they look great if they are cleaned up and dressed with chrome & paint. I even had a friend that had the front & rear suspension under a honest to God 32 Ford sedan delivery,,running down the road was smooth as silk,,,in the curvy mountains it was the scariest hot rod I have ever ridden in,,,way too soft for curves,,it felt like we were going to roll it. HRP
My Dad and I Installed well Over 50 Jag rearends in many hot rods and streetrods ver the years, They are a very nice unit, And make the overall ride alot smoother than a solid axle. I would never use the stock cage (just because it looks like ****) but don't let anyone tell you that a jag rearend is bad, As I know first hand They are great! My dad has over 50K miles on the one in his model A. And the only rearend that looks better than a jag under a hot rod is a halibrand Quickchange.
The MN12/FN10 ('89-97 Thunderbird/'93-98 Mark VIII) design is newer and better in terms of geometry and NVH isolation, but it's also got several weaknesses. First, it's easier to find parts for the old Jag stuff than the Ford. Ford NLAs stuff faster than anyone in the industry and there's a variety of subframe mount bushings, LCA bushings, etc. that you CANNOT get new from Ford or from any aftermarket vendor. You can buy complete Mk8 LCAs from Ford (maybe not for much longer) but $$$. You can get various other bits in the aftermarket. Secondly, it's bulky. The great advantage of the Jag for rod/custom purposes is that it was made to fit in the same space as a stick axle. The MN12 rear body was designed to package around the suspension, and brings with it certain modern characteristics (like the spring/strut units mounted to the fender and the gas tank under the back seat) that may be harder to adapt to older structures. Thirdly, it is what it is. The Jag exists from the factory in several different widths, and with some attention to dimensions and lower-arm geometry it can be narrowed (or widened) to fit almost anything. The MN12 rearend is wide - 64-and-change inches across the hubs - and is much harder to narrow (it can be done, but you'll be fabricating piles of stuff to do it. Fourth, the Jag has some history behind it while the Ford is quite definitely non-traditional (which is why I'm not going to post any pics of my '64 Country Sedan on this thread.)
It is nicer without the cage but box tubing takes up space. I got the whole thing up agaist the bed. Ghetto installation but cheap, simple, & efficient for a Jag in a truck.
I don't know what it'd be like to mount, it's a kind of odd-looking thing out of the car and it uses an oddball diff with no aftermarket support. I'm going to throw a thought out there if you want to check out non-traditional, then duck and run away from this thread: Lexus LS/GS/IS/MkIV Supra/last couple years of Cressida. All similar designs, reasonably compact, cat-swingingly common in the yards now (not so much IS or Supra...), good parts availability. Haven't done anything with one but someday I'll drag a GS example home to look at.
I did almost the exact same as mataconcepts did. Used the stock cage and just welded it between the frame rails. Only had to notch out the bottom rail a little and fit it in. As my 7 year old nephew says, "easy-peasy". Just pay attention to pinion angle. This is in-process, I later added the lower triangulated arms going forward from the hubs to intersect the lower arm pivot line. Here is how truck sits now
Re Jag front and rears. They can be found cheap if you look around. I just bought a complete series 3 (1983) Jag for $280.00 Parts not used can be onsold for a big profit.
I like your truck cheep,fun and probably handles a zillion times better than the day it rolled off the ***embly line
How are they hauling a load? Like weight in a trunk of a Jag, *** draggin or easliy adjustable with an air bag conversion?
I wouldn't use anything else - for 600 clams I get XJS/6 low mileage front complete hub to hub with power steering, swaybar, shocks, vented disc brakes with 4 piston calipers on the original subframe with all the anti dive anti squat geometry built in and proven over millions of road miles and 40 years AND IRS with 3.54 posi 4 piston calipers vented outboard disc brakes. 600 clams for front and rear fer cryin' out loud - now price out that beam axle front end or that aftermarket Mustang II and that rebuilt 9" rear end. So hell, why should I even consider anything else, when I want to cruise long distance in comfort with great handling and a magic carpet ride....