Rear end for the 37 ?????

[Mike P]

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks getting some stuff ready to take up to the Tucson Street Rod Association Swap meet this Saturday. One of the things I decided I could live without is a 68-9 B Body Dana 60 that’s been sitting on the rack for many years.

I got into it right because as at some point someone had cut off the spring perches and put on a set of real ugly 4 link brackets. The reason it never ended up under one of my projects was that it has a set of 4.56 gears in it.

So I spent a few days cleaning up the housing, checking the Powr-Loc and installing new seals and converting it to “Green” bearings. I’ve got a new set of Mopar Performance spring perches I figured I’d throw in with it and basically sell it as a pretty much ready to install unit.

Everything was going pretty good until for chuckles I decided to run some numbers and see what the effective ratio would be with an overdrive transmission in front it. Well it turns out the with a A833 OD 4 speed or 518 Torqueflight the effective ratio turns out to be approximately a 3.30 ratio which I could definitely live with.

The Dana also happens to be the right width to fit under the 37 Dodge. The rear end that is currently under the Dodge is an early 70’s Nova 10 bolt that would probably be capable of holding up to the Hemi but it needs everything (axels, carrier, gears, seals, bearings etc) and frankly I’ve been keeping an eye out for something that’s in better shape with the right gears to use instead.

So here I sit with a pretty desirable and valuable ready to go rearend that suddenly I’m not so sure I want to get rid of. It’s way more strength than the 37 Dodge really needs but it’s a lot more impressive than the scrawny 10 bolt.

I guess the current plan will be to haul it to Tucson, ask a little more on it than I originally planned and if it sells fine and if not I don’t think I’ll be too disappointed.