I have had zero trouble with enclosed drive shaft on both my 54 3100 pickup and 54 Belair sedan. If you don't care about keeping the originality of your truck them move to something else. Please keep in mind that for the sake of maintaining to long term resale value of your vehicle you are better off stick with the original equipment. I have had my 54 Belair since I was 15 yo, 38 years. I have watched others customize and modify their 54 Chevy cars till they were all the rage and talk of the town. Several years later a couple of those guys offered sell me their cars. I turned them down. In these cases the cars didn't even make decent parts cars. My "Old Friend" continues to increase in value and invariably the customs end up as junk.

So please let me encourage you to pull the read differential gear assembly and rebuild it. You can install a 3.55:1 ring and pinion gears set from Patrick Truck Parts. Absolute Chevrolet Part in Nashville Ga. will also have all the parts you will need to get the job done.

Hope this helps
Walt Williams
La Verkin, UT

Last edited by 54Belair; 08/09/2014 12:49 PM.