The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop rear end swap 63 c10

this guy i know is willing to give me the rear end out of this 69 chevelle he recently bought. just wondering if it would be possible to modify it to fit in my 63 c10. he said its a 10 bolt with 3.08 "highway gears". i am definitely looking for a rear end with gears like that as i do travel on the highway pretty often and am looking for gas mileage more than anything else. the main difference i noticed looking at it was that it has trailing arms on the top and bottom of the rear end and the lower ones were definitely not nearly as long as the ones on the truck. i didnt know if it was possible just to disconnect the lower ones and bolt mine in and somehow connect the top ones to the frame or if some major modifications need to be made. also, if anyone has a rear end with gears like this one has and is in good shape, let me know. any advice is appreciated. thanks.


also, the truck has coil springs if that makes any difference. thanks.

Edit: link to a pic of a chevelle rear end looking pretty similar
http://grimers.com/vehicles/olds/12bolt/12b5.jpg

63Custom - I have an El Camino with that same rear end in it, same gears and all. I can tell you that during the short time the vehicle was running it made a trip down I-95 real nice. I can't tell you the exact mileage but it was upper teens with a 283 I broke in on the way to Florida. I got a couple of real good stories out of that trip.

The Chevelle rear end is a triangulated 4 bar set up with coil springs, I believe your truck uses trailing arms with panhard bar and coils. Ask any hot rodder and they'll tell you that where there is a will, there is a way. Yes you could probably put the Chevelle rear in your truck but I don't think it is as easy as bolting on the trailing arms. You want to go take a bunch of measurements starting with the relative location of the lower trailing arm mounts on each rear end. To prevent binding when using your trailing arms the Chevelle rear must have the lower mounts the same distance apart as the current truck rear end. Bushing size could be your next issue, need to measure those also. You can attach the panhard bar to one of the "ears" on the Chevelle rear but they are angled so you will need to fabricate something to allow the bar to work correctly. Its purpose is to prevent lateral motion between the body (frame) and the rear while still allowing up and down movement. Fabricating a new cross member to hold the Chevelle's upper triangulating bars may be a better answer although harder than the panhard bar.

You also need to be prepared for the 5 lug car pattern on the Chevelle rear being different than the 6 lug on the truck's front end.

Finally, you did not mention what motor you are running but if it is a 6 the 3.08 gear may be too much for the motor. Can't give you good advice on that but others here seem to think either a 3.42 or 3.73 works good for the 6; a 3.08 is best left for a V-8. Good luck

To be honest, you'd be better off staying with the rear that's in the truck now. It's a truck style 12 bolt, far stonger that the 10 bolt from a Chevelle. Parts are still available for it, including gear sets. With an axle shaft swap to the 30 spline "mid-'65 and later) you can also open up alot of availability of virtually any kind of Posi ar locking diff that yis available. You can also change to an easy truck 5 lug (5x5) bolt pattern using later axles in the existing housing. I thnk that the need shortened slightly (I forget the exact amount) to fit, as the later housing is slightly wider. This can compliment a spindle swap in the front for upgrade disk brakes using totally stock parts.

thanks a lot for all the advice guys. for the record, the same guy actually is selling me a 350 and turbo 350 to put in the truck and i have 5 lug all around right now. is it a possibility that someone has previously swapped the rear in my truck? i should probably check and see what the gear ratio is in it now is but i cant do that til may cause im at school in NC til then and the truck is back home in MD haha. how difficult is it to swap the gears in the trucks rear end? all the modifications that need to be done to the chevelle rear sound like a little too much for me to handle. let me know. thanks.

anybody?

I would check the gear ratio that is in the truck now. Even if it didn't come factory in that truck, if it came from a truck with factory trailing arms, it probably has 3.73 or 4.11. I read somewhere that the car and truck 12 bolts are completely different internally and the gears will not swap. My suggestion is to first check the width of the rear end. The original rear end for our trucks were 56" from backing plate to backing plate. Later truck rearends were widened by 2" but will still work in our trucks. My truck had a 12 bolt car rearend that a previous owner had installed... badly. Also, unless your rearend comes from a 70-76 Impala, its going to use a smaller bolt pattern than a truck. If your rearend is in that range, you can use it, but it will require some mods. First you need to cut off all the brackets currently on it. Then you need to make new brackets for the trailing arms and weld them to your rearend. Then you will need to make a new panhard bar bracket. One can be fabed to bolt on with the differential cover. We used the rearend from an 80 chevrolet truck this way. I have some pics I can get for you if you'd like.

yeah sure id definitely like the pictures. send to perfectcrime12345678@gmail.com.

Do you know how difficult it would be to just switch the gears in the rear end thats in it now to a lower ratio?

Thanks

I only know two things about that. 1) You can't do it yourself. it requires special tools that not even every shop will have. 2) Depending on what gear you are starting with and what gear you want to end up with, you may have to buy more than just a ring and pinion. There is a thing called a carrier and there are diffrerent ones for different ranges of gears. Sorry i can't be of much help, I am in college too and am new to a lot of this.

Ok, thanks for the help i guess i can rule out doing the work myself. Anyone know of any rear end shops in Maryland?