I've got a 49 Ford shoebox and was wondering what the easiest rear-end swap would be. My ford has a 4:11 ratio and it's just to low for cruising. The car does have overdrive but I live in Washington State where their a lots of hills so I'm always having to kick it in and out of overdrive. I would like to have a lower ratio in the rear-end something around the 3:8 so I could just leave in 3rd gear.
wild guess....look around for a rearend or just the pumpkin from a similar car that does not have overdrive, usually they had 3.7 to 3.9 gears. At least that's how things are with Chevys of that era. And automatic cars usually had an even more highway friendly gear. (same basic rearend was used in Ford cars from 49-56, not sure on interchange though)
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