Took number two son out for a drive in the truck the other day and told him I was thinking about doing an S10 swap on it. He said, "Noooooo!!! I LOVE this old truck. It needs to stay the way it is. I love the smell, the way it steers, the sound of the transmission...everything." So...I am NOT doing a frame swap. I will upgrade certain components instead. I'm going to change over the front brakes to disc using the Buffalo Industries kit that Bill Hanlon used. I need information on the master cylinder to use though and a bracket to mount it in the original position. I do NOT want to go with a booster. Bill said the master he used was from a '71 Mustang. Not sure if I need proportioning valve with that master or not. I never did a disc conversion before. Any help on that would be appreciated. Also, I am going to ditch the torque tube rear. I have a Muncie SM420 four-speed in my truck, so replacing the rear with one that has better gearing to put me into the fast lane is now actually going to happen. The Patrick's 355:1 kit for the conversion of the torque tube is going to wind up being too expensive after I get somebody to actually do the work (I have NEVER done rear end gears and I'm not going to start on this one). I do welding, though so new spring perches on a different rear is easy and cheap from my friends boneyard. Swapping out the rear portion of the Muncie SM420 trans for an open drive rear piece I believe is relatively easy as well. If I'm incorrect on that, somebody please let me know. Which rear end should I get and anybody have experience with the rear ratio's on this type of swap with the SM420 4-speed? Or...should I just go with the Colorado truck rear since I hear they are disc brake as well and six lug too. Will running disc on all four wheels eliminate the need for a proportioning valve? The reason for all this is to keep the drivetrain mostly original (including the I6) to retain the flavor of the vehicle and upgrade certain parts for safety issues and improve driveability. Thanks for help, Andy
So, do you want to keep your wheels 6 lug? The thing I found out about a Colorado rear is the wheel hub is bigger than the original wheel opening, so you will need spacers to get the wheel out a tad. (I bought some for mine. No big deal.) If it doesn't matter 5 or 6 lug, you just opened up a bunch of possibilities as far as your rear axle goes. Front disc conversion is no problem/easy peasy. If you hit something that your not sure of, ask! If I can do it... I'll be interested to see how that works with taking the 4 speed from closed to open. Good luck with that, Andy!
If you are going to get rid of that rear portion of the tranny let me know. I am interested in it. John
I'm finishing up a drivetrain swap on a 53. An s10 5 speed is an easy conversion. Grab the 5 speed from a pre 86 s10 (Mechanical speedo output), or up to a 92 (after that they became world class and some had Ford style mounts). An 86 Astro van clutch pack works well. I also had to grab a longer throwout bearing.....one app for it was a 55 vette. I grabbed the driveshaft from the regular cab s10. I have an 06 Colorado rear with drums, though you can get discs. Cut the saddle brackets from the colorado and install new saddle brackets to fit on the springs. Drill a hole 1 1/2" foreward of the mounting hole to center the wheel. You do have to use thin spacers to get the wheels over the center hub. The s10 driveshaft needed to be shortened to 50", new u joints and bolted right up. Master Power brakes has the adapter plate and the master cylinder for manual brakes, using a 67-76 Corvette master. Use residual valves (2# for disc and 10# for drum) to keep fluid from backflowing. Run new brake lines and rubber hoses, bleed and go!
Open Driveline Recently the local Pick-A-Part Junkyard put out a pretty clean 1950 3100 with 235 , Muncie SM420 and open drive line , all still 6 lugs . Disc brakes too ~ . The frame and tranny with the open drive line rear end , drive shaft etc. never did sell ~ I'd thought that would go right after all the new chrome stuff was removed . Go figure .
Update on the upgrade Stopped by my buddy's boneyard today. He has a nice Nova rear that measures 53 1/2" from backing plate to backing plate. The ratio is 3.08:1. 5 lug naturally. I figure with my granny 4-speed that this ratio just might work as I never used first gear anyway. with those low gears, I might actually have to start off in FIRST gear . Definitely won't have any problem getting to highway speed with 3.08:1 gears. He ALSO has a disc brake conversion kit for 55-59 trucks laying around that uses Chevelle hub and rotors. This would convert the front to 5 lug as well. I have no idea if this will work on my '54 spindles or not and neither does he but he says he can look it up. Only trouble is his yard and "office" trailer are usually a disorganized mess as he does not have a lot of space in his yard. In fact, he really wants me to take this rear because he spent days digging it out for another customer who is now giving him the run-around about picking it up. He would LOVE to stick it to the guy by saying that another customer took it while he was jerking him around. It may take him a while to dig out the disc conversion kit, but like many people whose desks may be disorganized, I am sure he knows EXACTLY where it is, even though it may be buried a bit. "Give me a couple of days" usually means just that and the part magically will appear from the ether. Andy
Andy, With those gears you will be using the 1st as 1st. Mine with the 342/1 I sometime use the 1st instead of the 2nd at lights. Charles
And the good thing is, you're not in a riproarin' toot to get this done. You know he'll have the front end soon. That sounds really good to me. (replacement parts you can buy over the counter!) I'm looking forward to hearing if it will work for you, and if not, why? Also looking forward to hearing about swapping the back of your tranny out to an open drive. This would probably be a very popular swap for those of us who wouldn't ever care to mess with pulling rings and things.
Brake upgrade Hey Chiro, I think I can add some info on the brake request. Here's a quote from a previous thread.. Martinius and Paul, OK, I went and dug out my receipts... I bought my brake stuff from Engineered Components, INC. 860-872-7046, http://ecihotrodbrakes.com/index.html I got the 67-72 Mustang dual Master Cylinder, (front disc/rear drum). Also got a 10 PSI Residual valve to install in the front brake line near the MC. The part nos are: EC-445 Mustang Master Cylinder $75.00, EC-655 10 PSI Residual Valve $25.00. I also bought the adapter for the dual MC, PN EC-420 $89.9. These are current prices, but if you wanna' go this route, I'd call and confirm these are all still the right part numbers. I expect that the Residual valve may be cheaper at a local parts store... Hope this is of some help. BTW, I have drum/drum. That's why the 10# residual valve for front. The MC has built-in residual for rear drum brakes as original on the Mustang. Now, I have since put front discs on my truck, and because of that I removed the front residual valve as the MC has built in valves for front disc and rear drum brakes as came on the '69-72 Mustang. I've driven my truck a couple of times since the brake upgrade and the brakes work fine. Also, I left mine as manual instead of adding a booster. Hope this helps a little. Bill
Mine is without booster as well. My master came from our host, which came from CPP. I've yet to see what else this mc needs, but it looks like I need another part before I run my lines. No big deal, just more friggin money, as always. Updates that will only help, however.
Zig, What other part do you need? The stuff I quoted above included everything I needed, except brake lines, I think. Must be something minor
Sm420 open yolk Andy, I would trade you your sm420 back end for an open yolk I have as spare parts. I do not have the speedo gears. Jim
Bilbo Thanks for the information.This is of great help. I wonder how the adapter looks like as i could`nt find it on there web site? Did you installed the New mc under the floor or on the torpedo wall ? I`ll understand that you went fore a manual solution without installing a Power Brake booster. Did that improved braking compared to the old standard mc solution with your new disc brakes installed? I want to install disc brakes in front and keep my drum brakes on rear like you have done. Could you if posseble publish some Pictures of the install at Chevy talk forum. That would be great. Thanks a million Martinius.
open end parts Jim, Do I need the open drive speedo gears to run a speedometer or can I use the gears in my closed end tranny
The speedo gears in the closed drive system will not work on the open drive as the tooth count is different & the drive gear set up is different. The open drive parts I pulled for you today include the matched speedo drive gears .... I am almost certain that you will need to have the speedometer itself calibrated to handshake with these gears after you have completed the closed to open drive conversion.
Rear axle perches Okay, parts are coming together for my upgrade. I need new axle perches to weld on my Nova rear end. Anybody use these or know if they will work from our host? http://www.classicparts.com/1947-54-Weld-On-Rear-Axle-Seats/productinfo/93-317/#.UkLAzV_D85s Thanks, Andy
We need an update on your open to closed conversion project Andy. We did a parts trade on this {open for closed} parts. I held up my end of the bargain & sent you the open drive line parts .... but I have not received the trade parts you promised yet. Did you run into problems on the conversion ? .
