79 TA axle in a 60 truck good or bad?

[smilts60]

So I go to pick up the title and some odd ball parts for my 1960 LWB today. My brother in law tells me the guy he got the truck from says it has a axle from a 1979 TA in it. I'm not sure that I see what advantage this was? Also it looks like a cross member or something, that would be under the transmission is missing. It looks to have been badly cut out not clean at all. Its had a 5 lug conversion but still has drum brakes. I have to assume the 5 lugs came off of the TA. Will this affect wheel choices at all. I don't really know anything about 79 TA's. Is there anywhere to find a picture of the frame so I can see what needs fixed? Or is removing that brace from the frame a common thing? Any ideas on this will be great. I plan to move it to my shop Tuesday and begin on strip down.

[fleetsidelarry]

if the rear end is from a TA, the wheel bolt pattern is going to be 5X4 3/4 like a chevy car. it would be an 8.5 10 bolt which would be OK for most use. the most popular front end upgrades will have 5X5 chevy truck. does your truck still have the torsion bars up front or has it been changed to coil springs?

[markeb01]

The advantage of the rear axle swap was probably just a means to provide a more highway friendly gear set. If you wish to keep this rear axle and want to run same size wheels all the way around, you can mount Chevy passenger car disc brakes on the front using your stock spindles and a CPP kit:

http://www.classicperform.com/Store/.../6370WBK-5.htm

I believe the rear drum brakes were still standard on 79 T/A’s with disc brakes optional, so those are probably just the stock Pontiac brakes.

Before throwing money at the solution, just make sure keeping the rear end is the best option. The sloppy crossmember removal you mention is probably what’s left of the engine support shown in the picture above. Removing this is common when swapping to a transmission requiring a transmission mount under the tail housing, and addition of a new crossmember further back in the chassis. It may just require addition grinding to clean up the area. The various parts mentioned can be seen in this link:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=369663

[smilts60]

It still has the torsion bars in front. Engine wise my plans are to build and drop a 350 with manual trans in it. That being the case would I have had to remove the rear engine support anyway? I'm guessing Ill have to use this rearend for now. The only other I have is a 8/8 out of a Mustang 5.0. I could try coming up with another rearend if ya'll have suggestions on what to go with though. I'm not sure who had this truck before my brother in law, or what they did to it. I've now heard it had a 454, and a 305 in it. Neither engine is in it. Makes me wonder, will the wheels off of my brothers 82 TA work to get the truck to my shop? The tires on the truck are beyond repair and I dont want to buy tires just to move it.

[smilts60]

Got to thinking about it today and my dad has a early 80's chevy truck sitting at his farm doing nothing. Are suspension parts off of it usable on mine?

[fleetsidelarry]

Originally Posted by smilts60

Got to thinking about it today and my dad has a early 80's chevy truck sitting at his farm doing nothing. Are suspension parts off of it usable on mine?

for starters, the entire front cross member with 5 lug disc brakes, the power steering, the power brakes...there's some extremely informative threads about this swap on this forum.

were you saying before that your current torsion bar front end has 5 lug drums, or was that the rear end you were talking about?

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=367260

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=356070

[smilts60]

Current torsion bar front end has 5lug drums, the back as well.
Thank you for the links.. Im slowly as time permits searching and going through these very informative forums finding more and more usefull things.