I'm about half ways through a front suspension swap for my '65 Chevy P/U. The donor truck is a '75 silverado. Will the rear end from the'75 fit my '65? I have checked out other sites and it seems that just about everyone has been going for a '67 to '72 rear end. I woul dreally like to keep this one instead of having 6 lug in the back and 5 in the front... Please Help Thanks in advance, TD
a just check the with. and the mounting hard where if it the same bolt it in. if not just nock off the old monts and reweld new ones on. or relacate the old mounts. but it should be the same rear end
you will need a complete 5 lug diff if you get one from a 71 or 72 truck. The axles themselves are different length, so you cannot swap 5 lug axles to a 6 lug diff. been there. A tape measure will tell you if the 75 axle width is good or not. do you own a tape measure? perhaps some string or tree limbs cut to length for a measuring device?
I'm thinkin the added width of the 75 axle might not be a bad thing for a 65 chevy widebox pickup. They always looked like the rear axle was too narrow anyway... the stepside box on a 65 could be a different story. It's a bit narrow and the added width of the '75 rear axle might be too much for anything but narrow wheels and tires. Crosley's idea for measuring is inovative and cutting edge...it may have some merit.
Some can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the reason for using the 67 - 72 rear is it is a direct bolt in, as the trailing arm/coil spring setup was used up until '72. I think the 5-lug version didn't appear until '70 or '71...so that is the one you would need. The '75 rear may be the correct width, but it is for the leaf spring design, and will have to have the correct brackets fabricated to mount to the '65 trailing arms. Brian
Here is the gospel. I'm all about these trucks. 71 and 72 were 5 lug coil spring rears. Straight bolt in. No mods at all. Some, very few, 72 and back trucks were leaf spring. 73 up are also 5 lug, but all of them were leaf spring. Rears got 1 inch wider in 1970 model and up. The main issue with dropping in a 75 era rear end into your truck, isn't width or spring hangers. It's the panhard rod. Your truck has a bung built into the top right side of the differential for the panhard to bolt into. 71 and 72 rear also have this, so they bolt straight in. If you use the later leaf spring rear, you need to figure out how to anchor your panhard to the rearend someway. I made mine longer and bolted it to the right side lower shock mount. If you need pics, I can supply them tomorrow when I get home. The coil spring trucks have special saddles on the rear end for the trailing arms, they are angled. The leaf spring saddles are straight and different. A company called Early Cl***ic Enterprises sells the angles saddles for just this reason. They cost about 60 bucks per pair. So, fab up a way to anchor your panhard and put the proper angled saddles on and you're good to go. A much easier solution, if you are otherwise happy with your current rearend is to buy axles from Early Cl***ic Enterprises (see above). They sell a set of conversion axles that drop right into your current rear and convert it to 5 lug. Price is about 300 per pair. You will also need 5 lug drums if you go that route.
I used a 79 front end with Bell Tech spindles in mine and the 71 rear end. Since The rear brakes were new on my 66 rear end, I swapped the 66 backing plates to the 71 housing and used new 5 bolt 71 drums. Worked great! I didn't even need to bleed the brakes.
Hey Thanks Everyone, Hey yeah Hillbilly will you please e-mail me those pics or you can pm them to me. Thanks, TD
Hold on man. I work 24 hour shifts at the fire station. I get off at 8 am. I need to go home and post the pictures off of my puter at the house. I'll get them up within a couple of more hours.
Texasdeuce, here you go. Mine is the Early Cl***ic Enterprises super track bar. It comes with the new mount bracket and longer bar. The bar is adjustable so if you'r truck is lowered you can still center the rearend under the truck. Yes, I did use a 72 model rear end to get the five lugs, so mine already had the proper upper mount bung for the panhard, but you could just as easily use any rear end, since the bung isn't needed with this new setup. Everything looks squished in the picture, because the truck is lowered 6 inches in the rear.
TexasDuece - just finished the 5 lug swap on my 61 SWB Fleetside. This is what worked for me. I pulled the axles and had a local machinist plug the 6 bolt holes and redrill the 5 lug pattern that cost me $80 including the new studs. While i was in there i had to have the drivers axle cut down 7/16" and regrooved for the C clip, seems the guy before me had a new axle put in and didnt check the width In retrospect - should have done the 73+ axle swap but couldn't find a 12 bolt to do it around here.
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