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thanks merle, that's the kind of thing i was looking for, the positive ground thing wouldve messed me up for sure. and knowing they had a tendecy for sticky valves will give me a better starting point. also i only have a liking for lexan because i have plenty of 1/4" scrap lying around from a previous project. and with a baby on the way and winter around the corner, i just want to get the vehicle winter storage ready for as cheap as possible. so free windows and minimal in rubber gaskets, that'll be all i need for now. and i can get a real windshield cut and swap it out later on, once i get the rest of the truck road worthy.

The new Elvis movie released today, "The Identical" has two scenes with a '49 Suburban. The first scene is around 24 minutes in, with the car sitting in front of the Honky-Tonk. The second scene is a few minutes after with Elvis and his dad sitting in it talking before leaving said Honky-Tonk. Looks just like the one in my garage .................................. because it is ! http://theidenticalmovie.com/ Good movie too !

The hubcaps moving is a "simple" physics thing. Not an issue of radials vs. bias-ply or flexing of the rim. Same principle as the "spinner" hubcaps you see nowadays. No matter how tight your hubcaps snap onto the rims, if they aren't physically fastened to it, they'll spin to some extent. Tire and rim turn - accelerating, braking, changes in speed, etc. - hubcap resists. The heavier the hubcap, the more it resists, full covers are more prone to this, too. Normal vibrations help loosen them up. Our car has steel valve stems, so we don't have an issue with the full trim ring damaging them, although I do remove them and reposition them so the stem is centered in the hole every year as part of my ritual when winter breaks. Only way to prevent it (or reduce it) is to increase the friction between the hubcap and the rim. I've seen strips of inner tube cemented to the hubcap where it contacts the rim work fairly well.

I'd have to go Explorer; I've done two of them now and it couldn't get much easier. Plus you get 3:73 gears, a posi, and disc brakes already to go for under $200.

Many people here are using Ford Explorer 95 and up rears that have the disc setup, 4 1/2 wheel pattern... The Jeep Cherokee XJs rear is a good fit also, 4 1/2 wheel pattern. has drums...

I only see 3?? Where are the other 34????

try to find two. I'm off to the junkyard now with Merle's pictures in tow. (Except for the one with the Catepillar D8 bucket...too hard to explain) Hank P.S. I'll keep you in mind. Hank; that's what I am worried about....... Finding one is going to be pretty tough......finding two? Jeff

I hear that the ratio is stamped into the housing at the top of the diff. Probably not the easiest place to see with the axle in the car. I would probably search late 40's - early 50's Mopars. The Dodge, DeSoto's and Chryslers with the semi-auto trans would most likely have the lower ratios, but I've heard that the larger 7 passenger sedans and limos may have a larger diff. The same would likely be true to the 8 cyl powered Chryslers. It seems that the 4.10 ratio was also common on the Plymouths of that era. I got lucky. I happeded to be one of the first to read a post from a former member here. He was looking for a 4.10 diff for his '53 Plymouth Suburban (wagon) and he purchased an axle from a '50 Plymouth thinking it had a 4.10 diff only to find out it was a 3.73. He was asking if anyone had a 4.10 diff they wanted to get rid of. I had a parts truck with a 4.10 diff, so I offered to ship my truck diff to him and if it would work for him he just needed to ship his 3.73 diff back to me. It was an even swap and only cost us shipping. Before shipping I sent him some pics. Because the cars use a different type of driveshaft u-joint I ended up pulling off the drive flange before shipping my diff. He did the same with his car diff before shipping it to me. I replaced the input shaft seal and reinstalled my truck drive flange. Then it was just a matter of pulling the diff on my truck and bolting in the 3.73 diff. the only problem I had was with no bed on my truck, at the time, the driveshaft didn't have enough spline movement to get the u-joint clear of the flange. I added some weight to the frame to squat the springs and all was good. Here's some pics. I wish I had taken more of the process. One other thing I remember... When he got the diff from my parts truck (B-2-C) he mentioned that it had the "finer" spline for the axle shafts, which was perfect for his car. Unfortunetly I didn't make note of the spline count on my truck's axle, but the axles fit perfectly into the car diff. 4.10:1 Diff from my parts truck A look at the differential assembly of the 3.73 car diff A look at the differential assembly of the 4.10 diff from my truck 3.73 car diff installed in my truck's axle Adding a "little" weight to the chassis to compress the springs so that I could connect the drive shaft.