need help with my rear end (no pun intended)

[Budman56]

I want to change the rear end in my 65 c20 chevy truck. my truck has trailing arms. I have rebuilt my 327 motor, and converted over to a 700r4 trans. so I have been told to change the rear end, but I dont know where to start. so I need to know what year car or truck rear end would work? how do I tell what gear ratio it has? and what should I look at spending to do this change?

any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

[PGSigns]

Are you wanting to leave it 8 lug or do you have plans to go to another bolt pattern?
Jimmy

[Budman56]

I would like to leave it a 8 lug.

[Budman56]

Originally Posted by Budman56

I want to change the rear end in my 65 c20 chevy truck. my truck has trailing arms. I have rebuilt my 327 motor, and converted over to a 700r4 trans. so I have been told to change the rear end, but I dont know where to start. so I need to know what year car or truck rear end would work? how do I tell what gear ratio it has? and what should I look at spending to do this change?

any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

can anyone identify this axle and tell me what it is? can the ring & pinion be changed?

[Crash'd Artwerks]

Why do you want to change the rear end ? Most likely it will have something like 3.73 or 4.11 gears, which would be perfect for a 700R4. The low rear gears and low first gear in the 700R4 would work especially well with a smaller motor, like your 327.

You could pull the third member out of the housing and either count the teeth and divide the ring gear by the pinion gear, or most of the ring gears will have two numbers stamped in them--example, the ring gear in my truck has 41:11 stamped in it, so it had 3.73 gears.

-Aaron
Posted via Mobile Device

[Captainfab]

That is a Eaton HO52 differential. Yes and no to changing the gears. New taller gears are not available for that differential. More than likely yours has 4.57 gears, but it is possible that it has 4.11's. Also the bearings snd seals are getting harder to find. The one pinion bearing, I have heard sell for as much as $250.00.

I would suggest looking for either a Dana 60 or a 14 bolt. Some of the '67-'72 trucks were available with the Dana 60's in the C20's, with 3.54, 3.73, and 4.11 gears. This would be a direct bolt in. The 14 bolt was introduced in '73 in the C20's and C30's and is basically still offered today. The 14 bolt with the 10.5" ring gear is the full floating version. There is also a semi floating version with a 9.5" ring gear that was introduced in the early to mid 80's. Gear ratios available were 3.08, 3.42, 3.73, 4.11 and 4.56 in the military 4x4's. There are 3 different widths of the 14 bolt. There is the standard pickup width, the cab and chassis dually width, and the van width. So you will need to do some measuring before purchasing. The one drawback to the 14 bolt, is that they were never installed with a trailing arm suspension. So some cutting and welding is necessary for the trailing arm mounts and to remove the shock brackets. You will also need to weld on a panhard bar mount. I would just cut the one off of your HO52 and weld it onto the 14 bolt. If you do decide to go with the 14 bolt, I sell the trailing arm mounts that are sized for the 14 bolt axle tubes.

Originally Posted by Budman56

can anyone identify this axle and tell me what it is? can the ring & pinion be changed?