Rear end swap for 1950 chevy sedan with 216

Hello all, I just bought a 50 chevy with the original drive train. I want to upgrade the rear end for the highway usage. What is the easiest to use to swap it out with little to no modification? Please let me know. Thanks!

 

put a power-glide center section in it if you have a stick !

 

It is a 3 speed column shift... Where could I get the power glide section?

 

My buddy has a rear end from a 74 camaro with 2.73 gears, non posi. He says that might work.. I am not good with this swapping out thing...

 

Thats an open drivelive conversion-more than the OP wants to do.

 

you have a closed drive shaft / torque tube . you cant swap any rear end into the car with out changing out the transmission as well .

 

Ok. Don't want to do that... The car is all rebuilt. Engine, everything. I just want to be able to drive on the freeway. So what is my best option?

 

powerglide center section.

 

Is there a place that sells them? Or where could I find that?

 

Patricks out of AZ they sell ring and pinion kits.
http://patricksantiquecars.com/products.html

 

Power glide rearend. I did it, it still sucked ass. Just put in an overdrive and open driveline, youll be glad you did in the long run. It can be done primarily bolt in and goes a long way to making these cars more driveable for long trips. PM if you need info, I did mine last winter. Look at spnding about $1500 to get it done.

 

Patricks have a new Ring and Pinion kit set to convert the old diffs to better cruising ratio's - It uses all your existing closed driveshaft set up but drops the diff ratio to a more user friendly 3.55:1 ratio . One of the truck magazines did an article on the work involved about 12 months ago and a good home guy can do most of it. Its a nea change over and makes the truck more useful on todays roads

 

If you look around you should be able to pickup a Power-glide rear end out of any 49-54 Chevy.. They are the same rear end, gearing is about 3.55..
If you try to run the car on the highway at speeds over 50 mph you are going to have engine troubles if it still has a 216 CID stovebolt six.. Does the engine side plate extend up over the head with the plugs through the side plate (216)? Short side plate, not extending over the plugs and head is a 235 engine.. 1954-62..
These engines have babbit bearings and are generally referred to as "bearing pounder's"..
Get some good advise before you waste money and time re-gearing a rear end when an entire upgrade to the power train might be money well spent..

 

I'm switching my 1950 to a 292 truck motor/TH350 and 2.73gears.

 

If you decide to upgrade to newer open driveshaft stuff, a late 60's to early 70's Nova rear fits and generally come with 2.72 gears

 

i too am doing an open drive conversion on my 41 chevy. it also has the torque tube etc etc. if i can do this literally anyone can. there's lots of rivets to drill out etc etc but there are a lot of bolt-on kits that will set you up to use much more readily avail parts. i went to jpl streetrods based on the feedback from this site and they set me up with the front mustang 2 setup and the rear leaf conversion kit. rear axles are easy and cheap to find even if you need to rebuild the brake drums. you can go inline 6, keep the stock engine, or go v8. all same price. and you will have a vehicle that has modern suspension. if the car is perfect as it is just leave it alone but if you really want to make it hiway safe and are willing to compromise originality i think dollar for dollar the conversion is the way to go. just my useless .02. good luck either way!

 

If I were you man I would be updating with a drivetrain that will handle todays highway speeds. I am currently working on a 1950 Pontiac what we are putting a small block with a T5 transmission. The rear end that we are going to use is a 1955 chevy rear end. We saw a guy in Cleveland last summer put one in his 1950 Chevy and he said that it fit without any modifications.
Jay

 

im thinking about doing this to mine, i have a buddy that has a s10 rear end. would that be a good swap.

 

I have a '51 Fleetline and I have a '75 Nova rear in mine , 3:08 ratio , aluminum powerglide out of a '63 belair , and a 307 out of a 69 Camaro , awesome combo as I have plenty of power , and on the highway , I get 16-18 MPG...

 

I too will be considering this swap, Fortunately there's a junkyard with several '49-'52 Chevys with automatic trannys so a rearend from one of those will probably be the route I go.

 

Make sure you get a 51-2 rearend... they have the bendix brakes. I'm going to run a S10 so I have more modern brakes!

 

chaddilac--I'm going to run a S10 so I have more modern brakes!

what year of s10 rear end will you be running, i planning on running a s10 rearned also. Late 80's<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

 

Any year S10, that doesn't matter, the key is to make sure it's from a 4x4, the 2 wheel drive is too narrow.

 

ok, the one he has is a 2 wheel drive.
thank you for the info.

 

Yea you need a 4x4 rear... The codes are in the glove box... GT5 = 3.42, if you find a G80 code on there also it's a locker!! I'll pm you a link on the rearend a... It has all the codes and shows what they look like. You want the one that has a round pumpkin, it's got larger diameter axle tubes. To figure what ratio you need tire height, gear ratio from the last gear in your trans (usually 1:1 if its non overdrive), and then you can figure what ratio you need.


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I think the man is asking for an easy modification to increase highway speed. The easiest thing you can do is swap the entire rear end - including the torque tube, with a '50-'54 Powerglide car. This can be done in a couple of hours with a few hand tools and will change the rear gearing from 4:11 to 3:55, a .86 reduction, same as most of the T-5's out there. The 216 will purr like a kitten out in the fast lane, when your speedometer is showing 51 mph you'll actually be doing 60!

Most of the kids back in the 50's did this easy and cheap swap (I did on my '49 Fleetline). I actually thought it didn't hurt acceleration at all since the 216 is not a high revving engine and likes the taller gears. As was pointed out the '51 and up rears had Bendix brakes so you also get better stopping power as well. Oh, and don't forget to bleed the brakes before you go tearing up the freeways!!

 

I am in the process of changing out the drivetrain on a 1950 business coupe.I have the Torque tube disconnected at the trans and the rear end unbolted at the leaf springs.Was wondering how to get the torque tube lose at the differential.
I am going with the TCI Mustang II suspension
at the front and TCI 2" lowering leaf springs in the rear.The engine is a 1988 vette TPI,700r4 trans with a 1970 Nova rear end.

 

I've got a '50 Styleline with a 216 and have investigated all the different rear end options. It seems best to get the 3:55 gears from Patricks if you are trying to keep it original. They are inside and no one will know.
But, if you don't care about originality....do what you want.
I'm going with a 3:08 nova/camaro diff on my '52. (If I ever get to that point!) still trying to figure out what suspension to use on the front.

 

Just picked up a 52 deluxe with s10 rear end. No mounting for the bottom end of the shocks though.. is there a plate or kit or any idea's?