Thank you everyone, you guys are so smart, that is why I love this site. My 54 definatley has the closed drive shaft, I had to swing back the rearend to get the trans out.
235 Fat Fenders, thanks for pointing out the tail housing difference, I don't have mine out from under my truck yet to compare them to, but we are hoping to use the main case of mine and put the good parts (gears, forks, synchronizer, rollers) from the 49. I'm hoping that saves a bunch of headaches.
tclederman -thanks for the link to classic parts, another place I hadn't heard of yet.
Thanks Everyone for your help, hope to be pulling the trans from the 54 in the morning and figuring all this out.
