The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline need info; newer rear, newer trans, open drive!

new to the forums bear with me! i have a 1952 chevy pickup 3100 stock rear, stock 3 on tree trans, but updated 54 235 motor, "closed" driveline. i want to KEEP this truck column shift an 6 lug,but open drive. my question is what newer year 3 speed or trans will bolt up to my 235 an what kind of adjustments will i have to make? also what years were "open" drive 6 lug rear ends made?..i want to keep the stomp starter so any newer auto trans are outta the pic im guessin. which is fine but jus curious bout it. any info would be greatly appreciated! thanks!

welcome to the garage Smitty, the info is all around you .... some reading in various forums here should get you up to speed on it all .... the foot start was standard on all 6 cyl trucks until 1959, has to do with the engine/bellhouse/starter, not the trans - the trans from later open drive years into the 70's will work on your 235 bellhouse - the 55.2-59 center section will fit your rear axle - all light trucks after 54 were open driveline and 6 lug

Bill

awesome well thatll work! how much trouble would it be to get the shift linkage to work if i used a newer model(60's or newer) 3 speed though?

You'll probably end up bending and cutting rods. I just used a shifter from a '55 first that had the newer tranny in it. The rods had been cut and re-bent. I had to re-engineer them to fit a stock tranny.

Your best bet on a rear end would be find a '55 first and get housing, springs and all. If you use just the third member on your housing as mentioned above you'll have to weld on your mounts. Though many have done it, I wouldn't trust it.

alrighty, i jus have stock 235 an dont really wanna do the floor shifter thing so i want to keep the ole column shift. what transmission would be more highly recomended to to bolt to my original bellhousing?


as for the rear end what do mean by "welding my mounts on"? do i need to jus take an get the whole rearend an stick under my truck rather than jus the center chunk?

Your torque tube housing is mounted to the springs with a hinge. This hinge will have to be immobilized (welded) if you use a later third member and an open driveline.

Just what do you expect to gain from converting to open driveline? Your ratio is 4.11. any 3rd member that will bolt in is a 3.90. You seem to be wanting to change it just to change it. There is nothing wrong with the design of it. If you are after higher gears, there are ring and pinion kits that will accomplish that. You seem to be wanting to go to a lot of trouble to accomplish nothing but the change to an open driveline.

The reason I went to open driveline in my '54 was to install an overdrive. That will give me an advantage in gearing. For you to change from a 4.11 rear to a 3.90 just to get an open driveline is a lot of work for little advantage.

ooo alrighty haha i see what your sayin now im jus a newbie to the old sdchool "enclosed" driveline so bear wit me not understanding some things an thank u soo much for explaining. i want to be able to drive on highway but the reason i wanna change trans is because i heard the stock 3 speed trans will NOT hold up to high speeds of any kind like highway. an the old tube design jus seems to b so messy but sturdy an designed well i guess. im jus wanting it to be more driveable with a lil more update to it to be able to purchase parts an all for it if anything was to break or what have ya.

Stick qround on Stovebolt and you'll learn plenty. There is a rear ring and pinion change you can make for more comfortable cruising, but it's certainly not cheap. Various vendors sell them like Jim Carter and Patrick's in AZ.

This has been covered here before. I used the information to put 3.55 gears from a '51 powerglide Chevy car in my restored '36 Chevy pickup. Probably 99 out of 100 Chevy "experts" wouldn't notice that a '37 Chevy car rear axle housing was used to get the job done.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the cost was way below what the aftermarket suppliers get for rear gear conversions. The parts came from street rodders, $40 for a complete '37 Chevy car rear end and $100 for a complete '51 Chevy 3.55 rear end with perfect gears plus some time in my home shop (sweat equity).

yeah new guy, don't believe what you hear about those three spds not holding up. I've put 100ks on them without problems. They don't like to be "horsed" around with like tryin to do burnouts, speed shifting an such. Just keep oil in em and they are very reliable.
My 2 cents worth of experience.
dg

thanks soo much for all the information friends, iv thought of jus leaving the original torque tube set up an all but i dont really want to put $500 worth of 3:55's or 3:30's of ring an pinion in orig rear end if the trans cant hold up to 55+ speeds, which iv heard? jus not exactly sure wut do. i jus want to keep column shift, stomp starter an go 65mph max i guess without any probs with any of it, an if so be able to find replacement parts an all semi easily for drivetrain.

Why wouldn't the original 3-speed hold up with a 3.55 rear end (or hold up to 55+ mph speeds)?

im not sure, iv jus heard the ole 52 3 speeds werent able to cruise at those speeds an were easy to break? but i mean mines prolly never been into soo i thinking that the "easily broken" is prolly rubish not to sure of the other?

The trans will hold p just fine. Open versions of the same transmissions were used behind some of Chevrolets most potent engines all the way up to the mid '60s, including Power Pak and Feullie 283s and 327s, plus they were even found behind 396s and 427s as the base transmission.
BTW, I've ran mine, which is the open version, into the triple digits without any problems at all, so 65 shouldn't be a problem.

With the original rear gearing, a truck doing 65mph will have EVERYTHING wound right out... and may break.
Lower the rear gearing and your engine and tranny will be turning at a reasonable speed, transferring reasonable torque and power to the wheel. Everything will be happy (except maybe your brakes... and the guy stopped in front of you!). If you can find a full working center section from the right vehicle, it's a simple swap and your torque tube and hinged axle will work just fine.