Rear ends

[Gus68]

Hey guys!!! I have a 62 Bel Air and was wondering what some of you guys are using for rear ends?? I have a decent 350 that ran 13.00s in my chevelle, and a 4-speed. Right now I have the origanal rear end (3.36, open), I recently bought 2 ford 9" rear ends, one is the same width as the chevy rear BUT the chevy rear has one axle longer than the other to put the pinion in the center of the car, while the 9" has the same length axles and the pinion off set to the passenger side, so that won't work, cause I think the driveshaft is goingto rub on the side of the X frame. The other 9" is wider, but I was thinking of having it narrowed to fit the 62, plus this rear has 33 spline axles and 3.70s. I also have a 8.5 rear out of a 72 Nova that is the same width and has 3.08s and a posi. WHAT DO I DO?????? I DON'T KNOW!!!!!!!
Is it possible to make the origanal rear stronger? or will that cost a fortune???
I don't have much money into these rear ends, the 9"s cost 30 bucks a peice and the 8.5 was free!!! I like the 9" because its bigger but also because it looks alot like the original 62 rear, but I might have alot of money into the 9" by the time i'm done narrowing and resplining. What have some of you guys done??? is there a better option??? THANKS!!!

[CDNpontiac409guy]

Hi Gus !

You can sell those F*** rears to a guy with F*** cars, and keep your superior Chevrolet ALL Chevrolet !

I've done a little work with these rears;)

Welcome aboard :cheers

[Gus68]

Ya ya ya, I know ford is a 4 lettered F word. But you have to admit they are the small block Chevy of rear ends. They are cheap, parts are cheap, they are everywhere, parts are everywhere, they are strong and everyone uses them!!! how much are aftermarket 62 Chevy axles???? (if you can find someone who sells them) and even if you find a set, they are still smaller and have less splines than a stock 9" axle. Sure you could order a custom set (read EXPENSIVE) of big 33 spline axles for your Chevy, but then you need to buy custom 33 spline spider gears, and you still only have a 8" (if that) ring gear. Plus I bet I could find a used posi or locker 9" within a day of junkyard searching for around 100 bucks, good luck finding a posi 62 chevy rear, and the price? I have already destroyed a set of spider gears in my 62s original rear end.

[CDNpontiac409guy]

Gus, I would never admit that a 9" Ford is much more than a loss of power to the rear wheels:evil :p

You can find out everything you need to know regarding the Chevy rear, in our Links section under "348/409 Parts resources".

[dq409]

Gus, Check out the set-up Aubrey has ! For about or less then you can spend to make that 9" work you can make that stock rear just as strong or more !!Bruneau Performance (http://www.bruneauperformance.ca/intro.html) Enter then go to "our Products for 409`s",,,Then take some time and look around his site !!
Lots of fun stuff !!! ,,,dq

[jim_ss409]

I was talking to someone at Inland Empire Drivelines and he said they were expecting to have a bigger, 1350 series, yoke available for 55 to 64 rear ends. That along with Aubreys upgrades pretty much solves the weak driveline problems. By the way Inland builds a heavy duty driveshaft for our cars it looks great but I don't think it'll be cheap. http://www.iedls.com/twopiece.html Another place that can build one is Dennys I've heard there prices are usually good but I don't know for sure. http://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/html/2_piece_shafts.html I got a driveshaft from a 1 ton cube van and had it shortened. It's got the big 1350 U-joints and I was able to modify my centre suport to take the bigger bearing. It's a different configuration than stock so I'll have to do a bit of reading to make sure I get the angles right but it fits in there just fine. It uses 3" tubes. If Inland doesn't get bigger yokes by the time I need it I can use an addaptor U-joint that goes from 1350 to 1310. Lots of places have them. http://www.stockcarproducts.com/yoke.htm Here's a picture of the new driveshaft beside the old one, the new one's not painted yet because I have to get it ballanced first.

[Gus68]

Hey man!!! That drive shaft is cool!!! I was thinking of doing something simmilar. What kind of van did you get the shaft out of?? Chevy dodge ford?? what did you have to do to make the center support work? How much did the modifications cost you??? Thank you

[jim_ss409]

The driveshaft was off of a cube van. The cab had been burned bad and was covered in snow but I thought it was a Ford. The guy at the counter thought it was a Chevy though. But It doesn't matter because I think once you get to the larger sizes all of the manufacturers seem to go with standard Spicer sizes. Most cube vans and light trucks with dual wheels will have 1350 Spicer driveline. Most extended cab pickups will have two piece 1330 drivelines and 55 to 64 Chevies have 1310. I paid $40. Canadian, about $35. US for the used driveshafts and it cost about $200. US to get them shortened, ballanced and new U joints. I re-used the actual centre bearing, not the rubber part, just the bearing from the truck shaft by enlarging the hole in the centre of the 62's centre suport. The car had a polyurethane centre suport from Inland Empire Drivelines so I was able to use a wood router bit in an air powered die grinder to hog it out a bit. I'll have to learn a little more about driveline angles so that I can set this thing up properly because it's a bit different than the stock setup but it should work fine. I'm in bodywork mode now so I probably won't get on it untill spring.