Yes, you could swap out the whole rear axle with one from a truck but it
would likely need to be narrowed along with other mods (spring mount pads /
panhard rod). If going that route though, you could swap the axle with an
axle from almost anything else - either way it would require having a shop
do some mods. You could also just swap the diff/3rd member assembly into
the roadster axle. Only trick there is that the trucks use larger axle
shafts so you would have to roadster side gears (I don't know if they're
interchangeable on the later H190s) or modify the axle for larger shafts
(which would be more custom work).
If Don Miller didn't have any problems until hitting 300 RWHP then I'd have
to agree with him and not worry about it. As far as price on narrowing an
axle, you'd have to shop around. I'd thing $1200 would be the high end of
that spectrum though.
Brian '69 2000
Tampa, FL
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/oilleak/
-----Original Message-----
Thanks, Brian, for the rundown on diff's. If Leonard isn't going "monster
motor", but is basically stock VG30E (170hp/190ft-lbs), wouldn't he have the
option of using the diff from a similar year hardbody truck? It might be
the wrong width, but could be a start, they came with v6's, so they are up
to the job. As far as I know (are you out there, Bill Hatfield?) the brief
rundown of his swap (Holley 390, opened exhaust) didn't include horror
stories of later on diff explosions. (he also mentioned gas mileage in the
low to mid 30's as well)
My recent car show visits (289 in a 52 MG) have heard that a narrowed Ford
rear end is ~1000-1200 bucks. (although not sure of this was narrowing with
or without a rebuild, so that is not a very good number)
Fergus O
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