The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Car drivetrain in a 1/2 ton truck?

Anyone ever swapped a car 235, trans, and rear into a truck? There's a 235 with a powerglide and rear for sale nearby me right now. The whole setup is out of a '54 car. Being a powerglide driveline the rear is a 3.55 torque tube setup. I've got a '46 1/2 ton pickup project.

For starters, are the rears compatible? Or are atleast the gears compatible? Secondly, with the powerglide and 3.55 would I be satisfied with the truck's performance and economy? I'm building it to be mainly an entertaining weekend driver and occasional hauler of small gas engines (hit n miss from the early 20's).

Maybe several hundred pounds at a shot. Has anyone ever swapped an entire car driveline into a pickup, and what were the results?

This tech tip may interest you:

http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/torque_tube_swap.htm

Hi John and welcome to the 'bolt!!

First, read the tech article linked above. The wheelbases
of the 2 vehicles are the same so the length of the drive-
train should be just right. The '54 rear end is very
close to the same width as your '46 too. Aside from the
5-lug axles, and mounting issues is the ol' powerglide
transmission itself. For a truck, I'd sell it and get
a SM420 4-speed or get Patricks adapter for a Saginaw
4-speed. The 'glide only has 2 speeds and is notoriously
sluggish, especially with any loads. I have a '54 'glide
motor in my truck with a 5-speed and love it.

Keep us posted on what you decide.

I believe the truck has a 3-speed manual in it at the moment. If I made a 3.55 swap with the 'glide 235 and kept the 3-speed would I have trouble getting going? Also, with the 4 or 5 speed swaps is it possible to keep the torque-tube rear? I'm putting a wooden flatbed on the truck so the rear will be readily visible and I'd like to keep the torque tube rear.

Also, I'm likely sticking with 6-lugs because I have a nice set of 15" dropcenters and hubcaps for the truck and I don't really want to go sourcing new wheels or changing the front suspension to 5-lug. The drivetrain is already removed so I don't know if I can get the related mounting brackets mentioned in the tech-tip. Are these simple enough I could just make them?

Waldo, what 5-speed did you swap into your truck and did you keep the torque-tube rear? I assume you went to a T5, which is a trans I'm a fan of. I recently swapped a T5 into my '84 corvette.

First if you go to a T5 you have to use an open drive line. Now if you want to keep your exist trans in your 46 I think you can probably just swap out the center section of the car rear end. (the torque tube & gears) Then you can use your 46 axels and have your 6 lug pattern with the 3.55 gearing.

I think Jim Merit here on the bolt has done this swap. You might look him up to get the straight poop.

George

I like George's plan to keep the existing 3-speed and use the 'glide torque tube and center section (assuming the axle splines are the same). All's you'd need is a flywheel and a pilot bushing for the '54 235 as I think your '46 bell housing will bolt right up to the later 235.

I lost my Patrick's catalog somewhere along the way but as I recall he makes an adapter to mate a torque tube up to a Saginaw 4-speed which would work well with the 3:55 gears. This could be done later on down the road.

I used a T5 from an '89 S-10 truck (NWC) and a rear end from a '70 1/2 ton to keep the 6 lugs.

What's a good running full pressure/hydro lifter 235 and 3.55 rear worth these days?

And what from my 216 setup will work with the 235? Can I re-use the flywheel, TOB, PP, clutch disc, bellhousing, etc? I'm 99% sure the bellhousing is the same, but I have no idea on the flywheel/clutch stuff.

So, provided the axles are the same spline, I can use the car diff and torque tube/driveshaft with the truck axles and tubes? I think that means I don't ahve to modify the suspension brackets on the truck either. Sounds interesting. 3.55's might be a bit much for the 3-speed/235 combo though. Maybe I'll get the 235/3spd in it with 3.90's and save the car rear for a later project.

John, you can use your 46 bellhousing, clutch disk, pressure plate and flywheel, on any 235. I would use a new throw out bearing and clutch disk when you do the swap. Now if you have an orig. 46 3spd now you can use it also. It will work great with the 235 and the 3.55 gears. This is the combo I started out with. I used a set of Patricks 3.55 gears with my 46 torque tube. It worked out very well, I just like the T5 better.

I would say if you can use the 3.55 torque tube in your 46 housing, go for it, you'll be glad you did.

George

If the center section will fit your rear then the 3:55 ratio is dead on perfect for the 235. I am not aware of a 3:90 unless that is what the cars used at some point with an early six.

FYI,

The passenger car center section and torque tube will not fit in a truck rear end housing. You can install the complete housing and differential from the passenger car as described in Jim Merrit's article.

Since I finally have a house, a garage, and I'm actually making room in it for this truck I'm ready to start in on it this winter. I'm bumping this thread back up because I did in fact buy the complete driveline from the '54 car I mentioned above. 235/powerglide/3.55 car rear. I've got some more questions, and since the truck has no bed I'm doing the driveline work first.

I'm looking to make the truck a bit more useful in terms of moving and stopping, but obviously I don't want to make it modern (no disc brakes, no v8's, etc). I'm not using the powerglide, it just came with the deal. The '54 engine is good because it fits without changing the radiator or anything. Got a few questions about the rest of it.

I'd like to do a Patrick's Saginaw 4spd conversion. It says it's for '47+ trucks. Anyone install one of these into a '41-'46 Chevy pickup? What's so different? I know I'll need a later bellhousing, but I've got one of those on the 235 already. Will it mount up to the truck torque-tube or will I need a whole later rear (I do already have one from the car)?

The car rear with 3.55's is nice, and I'd like to use it, but I've read Jim Merritt's article and I don't know if I can find the correct 6-lug axles/rear end for that swap. Can I remove the mounts from the truck rear and weld them onto the car rear or are they too different externally for that?

I can also change the truck to 5-lugs up front, which would open up my wheel choices a bit. Are there any easy ways to do that and retain the stock brakes and axle? While I'm at it, is there any way to get better brakes up front while keeping it looking fairly stock? Later drums or something along those lines? I intend to to some light hauling with the truck, as mentioned above, and better braking is always appreciated.

Anyone got any other good tips/tricks/parts swaps for this series pickup? The engine is getting minor mods too. For sure a head rebuild with hardened seats and shaved a little, fenton headers, a good vintage intake, a cam, etc. It was a good runner with only 32k miles so I'm hoping I can just hone it and put in fresh rings, and leave the bottom end mostly alone.

Also, I just realized this thread should probably be moved to "Driveline". Can any mods make such a thing happen?

One quick thing is the clutch/brake assembly. On the 41/46 they are attached to the bellhousing and transmission, if you change the bellhousing and transmission then you have to modify all that to make the clutch and brakes fit.

John, I'm curious what you paid for the engine/glide/driveline, if you don't mind me asking?

A guy in our car club has offered the same thing to me out of a '54 wagon that he will be rodding in the near future. I don't want to switch to 5-lug axles so I'm interested in what you eventually decide to do. Mine is a '53 though, so I may just take the engine only for future use.

Allan, I believe I paid $450 for all of it. I have no idea if that's fair or not, but running '53 and '54 full-pressure 235's are getting pretty hard to come by, so when one popped up only a few hours from home I went ahead and paid the guy what he wanted for it.

I just saw this old thread - and I don't know if John got his truck done or not. He hasn't posted on here since Jan.
I'll send him a PM.

Here's a tech article on Sid's site about Chevy spindles and brakes:
http://droppedaxles.com/TECH_ARTICLES.html

Frank, sent you a PM. Thanks for the link and sorry for the long absence. I haven't gotten my truck done, in fact I haven't really even started Just been collecting parts while I fix up my house.

At this point my plan is to adapt a T5 to my stock bellhousing (to retain my clutch and brake setup) and run a '55-'62 open rear with ~3.90's. I bought a complete '56 front axle for a Bendix brake upgrade. Haven't found a good rear yet.