[lakota]

Several weeks ago I dropped a 327 sbc/400 tranny into a 52 Ford pick-up with home made engine mounts. Today while taking measurements for the driveshaft, I noticed that the rear end is a newer type probably from a 70s Ford. It's also off center by approx 4"...What to do???

A) Connect a driveshaft and run it at an angle?

B) Change to a Chevy rear end. Which one is 56 inches from flange to flange?

C) Scrap the mounts and move the engine over 4", and have it rub against the fender inner walls?

I sure could use some help on this...

[Frisco]

Connect the driveshaft. As long as the centerline of the crankshaft and the pinion gear are parallel (looking from the top down and also from the side) you will be fine.

[cboy]

lakot,

If I'm not mistaken I think you'll find that the actual offset of your rear end is 2" not 4". My guess is that you measured from the frame rail on each side to the center of the pinion and found a 4" difference in those two numbers with the passenger side being the shorter side. But that turns out to be a 2" offset, not 4. If you slid the rear end one inch over to the driver side and did another measurement, the difference in distance would now be only two inches. Or move the rear end a total of two inches toward the driver side and that 4" difference in measurements would now be totally eliminated.

What this means is that your engine/trans would only need to be moved 2" not 4" toward the passenger side in order to achieve a direct alignment.

But Frisco is right. You really don't need to do that. In fact, a lot of rear end/drive shaft guys will tell you that SOME offset is actually desirable. I've heard their explanation of why but I sorta started to glaze over so I can't be of much help with the "theory" side of it. I did have the same problem with my Rat project and I took the half-way approach, moving the engine/trans 1" toward the passenger side - which leaves me with 1" offset in a 24" drive shaft. I think if you have a 2" offset with a 48" drive shaft you'll be fine.

Dewey

[lakota]

WHEW!!!....Thanks guys, you just saved me a big expense and a lot of work. Now I can measure it for driveshaft.