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@soth122003 I think you have some very valuable points with experience. We really cant compare 4 ply automobile tires with 10 ply RV tires. ..... The thickness of the rubber casings, The diameter of the steel sidewall cables .... The thickness of the inner liner they are built different. Typical 4 ply car tire has nylon sidewalls, cheaper & smoother ride. ..... Like comparing apples to oranges. I will disagree here ... very politely of course. I have found over the years it is the layer of rubber that is between the belts of the tire that fail. I spent 15 years retreading semi truck tires .... When I left the field, I was the manager of a Bandag retread shop .... If we had a tire that failed, it was my job to inspect it & see why it failed. We generally just replaced for free just to keep the customer happy. Sometimes it was just too obvious they picked up a nail, ran the tire low & it came apart from heat. The belts separated, the tread came off ..... Sometimes it wiped out the fenders & tail lights <---- @DonaldSmith It was my job to see if we would pay for the damages. .... Sometimes we did .... Fact is, you have a large account like swift trucking ..... they got a problem, let me fix that for you .... Keep the customer happy. It is heat that kills tires. The belts separate the tread comes off ..... Rarely is it the sidewall that fails, but does happen on a compromised tire.

Sure is a tough call, I doubt anyone here has a crystal ball to gaze in and tell you the future of your current tires. Rule of thumb is the rubber starts to age & deteriorate at 10 years. ..... Even if still on a tire rack in the store & never installed. My personal opinion, if they were 10 years old & in the condition yours are, they would probably be fine ..... but 14 years? Who knows. I think if there would be a problem, it would come from a long drive & heat build up. ..... As the rubber slowly deteriorates over the years, then add heat to the compromised rubber. Around town probably could be fine, on the freeway thats where they would fail if at all. Concrete is the same way, it is good for up to 100 years, depends on who mixed it. Then it just deteriorates every year & gets weaker & weaker until it just crumbles into dust. Your tires have reached their life span @ 10 years, now just getting weaker as time goes by.

Jeep Cherokee also .... I understand you will need to remove the spring perches & weld new ones on in correct location. Tractor supply sells spring perches for building trailers, any trailer supply should have them or Hot Rod shops? ..... They are not a bolt in replacement. Some welding required, then deal with the drive line. If possible, try and grab all the E-brake cables & brackets from the donor vehicle. If you have everything, you can adapt it to fit your vehicle, modify the end to fit your E-brake handle. .... Your vehicle the E-brake is on the transmission, so you wont have one now. Just thinking if you get the rear end from pick a part or some place, grabbing all you can for the e-brake will save headache & $$ down the road.

I want to believe that a typical stock Mopar flathead 6 will run cool. ..... Assuming all is correct. The radiator is functioning as it should, the water distribution tube is clear, the block is clean of sand, the water pump is circulating water, T-stat is working. All things working you should not have a overheating issue. A Ford flathead V8 will always run hot ..... not a good Mopar flathead 6. So my answer, first fix your cooling system ..... then decide if you need a electric fan. Some with too small of a radiator benefit from a electric fan ..... you might want one. Just not common to add a electric fan to a stock engine.

I guess thats really not what I mean. There is a date code or birth date on every tire .... required by DOT for decades. Rubber gets old and starts to disintegrate .... de-laminate ... Call it what you want ..... 10 year old tires are not safe on the highway. I will not argue, their are many running tires 10 years old. They use them for show ... they trailer their cars to shows. For a driver I would not consider the used tires.

For the price you can not complain. ..... I wonder how old they are & how far you want to drive on them . If you search for "porta walls ..... Wide white substitute you can add to your existing tire. They look ok, not the best ....but they were available back in the 50's for those who could not afford wide whites. So a set of porta-walls would look period correct on your radials ..... depends what you want.

I'm going to wish you luck @tanda62 Not saying impossible, but not a easy task. The 1/2 ton trucks all used a 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern with a 16" rim. The 3/4 ton used a 5 on 5" with a 15" rim. At that time, the 15" tires were more stout then the available 16" tires. I'm just suggesting these old 3/4 ton trucks were built for farm use. Not real common to find lots of spare wheels 5 on 5 @ 15" lying around. Not saying finding one on ebay at $80 is a great price ..... having one built from scratch .... you might prefer the $80. My 1991 chebby truck uses the same bolt pattern as your truck .... you have choices, it may take time to find stock replacements.

Take care of it brother, lots of people here counting on you.

I'm only guessing you are going with the 1980 chebby because you already have it & is free. .... You are not searching to purchase it. Wheeel son, sometimes free is not cheap. ...... spits out a chaw of tobaccy. Is it possible you already have a chebby clip on the front using chebby wheel bolt pattern? .... Then the chebby rear end makes sense. First thing is what engine are you planning to use .... what hp? Why would you want the chebby wheel bolt pattern? Is it a 10 bolt or a 12 bolt .... A posi or limited slip? What is the width of it? ..... When did the GM's down size again .... Is a 1980 narrower then a 1978? Just so many questions need answers to give a honest answer your question. From the Ford foxbody forum. I was just wondering how much HP/TQ can my rear end handle all I did was put 3.73 gears and rebuilt the stock posi(new clutches) so far it handled 450TQ launching @6,000 cuttingt 1.69 60ft on ET streets but now Im putting down about 520QT so I dont know if the rear end is gonna hold up? any input will be greatly apreciated thanks.. A Ford 8.8 is a strong rear end, a Ford Explorer from a wrecking yard is cheap, It is the correct width, it has the correct wheel bolt pattern. It has many options in rear gear ratio, you can choose between drum or disk rear brake. A 8.8 would be a far cheaper option then a chebby .... unless you need the cheby wheel bolt pattern.

That is exactly what you do not want. The purpose of air shocks is to stiffen the ride or raise the vehicle ..... Like a truck with a heavy load, the air shocks will raise the rear back up, but you will not have suspension. The purpose of the shock is to dampen the bounce. ..... Remove the shocks & go for a ride .... it's fine. When you go over bumps your springs will bounce & bounce several times before stopping ..... Just like a car with worn out shocks. Going around corners the car will lean, quality of the shocks will determine how far it will lean & how many times it bounces after a bump. So what I'm saying, take off your shocks and go for a 1 mile drive. See if it is possible to get the ride you want. .... I'm guessing the ride will be smoother ...... A used car salesman would say "she rides like a boat" It wont handle well on corners you will want shocks ..... A quick simple test will tell you if the shocks really are the problem. Then go on RockAuto, buy the cheapest set of Hydraulic shocks they have .... You will get the ride you want with a compromise on corners when road racing. I think gas shocks are geared towards performance, really stiff for cornering. I also think we sometimes get carried away with lets buy the best we can! .... The more $$ you spend, the stiffer the shock you get. The Hydraulic shocks are cheaper, is what these old cars came with. Again the more $$ spent, the stiffer the ride .... Hydraulic shocks have a limit though. Gas shocks are a lot like air shocks... replace gas with air .... air shocks are adjustable.

It is a visual inspection, any scarring or pits need to be honed out to get a clean smooth surface that will seal with the new rubber cups .... they are not forgiving. Same time if you hone them too much they will never seal. Back in the day when I worked at Texaco gas station it was considered wheel cylinders were good for 1 rebuild with a decent hone if they were leaking. Sometimes we were wrong & had to replace them. Just saying yours would have to be not leaking, A perfect cylinder bore, to just throw new rubbers in them. Yours may be like that I have no clue .... A light hone is almost mandatory in my book just to say you did it. The idea of having them re-sleeved with a stainless steel cylinder is creating something that would probably last a lifetime or more.

KK makes sense ..... if you are going full restoration then stock .... you want a driver, my choice would be modern. Again unless you find good used brake drums .... there is one guy on ebay that makes 10" drums for $400 each. So if you need new drums, it is cheaper to do a rear end swap then buy new drums ..... Sooo, if there is a possible rear end swap in your future, I would do modern u-joints now, so they work with the rear end later .... sucks paying twice for the same item.

Reading through your post I see you are concerned with the drive line sitting in the back seat. I'm suggesting there are many reasons for that, does not mean it is bad. Or needs replaced. Was common practice to pull the drive line for towing. Take the u-joints apart & clean all the old grease out and inspect, grease & assemble ..... then decide if they need replaced. @FarmerJon has good advise on checking the condition of the rear end. I'm with the others, access the condition of the parts you have, drive it then decide what you want to do. Another concern is the brake drums. They are not cheap for new ones .... if yours are fine then get on with your day. The year for the Jeep cherokee depends on what brakes you want. They all have the correct width ... in the 1980's-90's & correct bolt pattern .... later ones came with disk brakes .... disk is fine but now you are getting into a bigger project. Staying with older drums would be easier. Same with Ford Explorer .... they have correct width & bolt pattern. My 1996 Explorer had rear disk .... I would be looking for earlier.

No idea what a 47 looked like, here is a look at a 49. Seems like it would be pretty easy to use a later model from a wrecking yard & it would function as needed ..... I wonder how many would call you out on it at a show?

I'm just saying some alligator clips & a jumper wire from battery to coil could eliminate the ignition switch being bad.

My 1991 chebby with a NV3500 5spd .... will not go into reverse without first shifting it to 5th then pull it straight back to reverse. I simply need to align the gears so it works. If I try to go from 1rst gear into reverse .... will grind like a stuck pig & never get it there. If I go from 1rst to 5th then to reverse it goes in so sweet with no complaints. Just asking if you have tried switching to other gears before going to reverse? Might not make sense, but works for me ..... Should I rebuild a transmission that works perfect everywhere except going into reverse? But switching it through the gears first it does act perfect.

I will toss something out of left field. Watching a youtube vid today where a guy been having issues with a new Holley tunnel ram duel sniper throttle bodies .... on a 1956 chebby. Nothing to do with you. While he is figuring things out, he realizes his original 1956 ignition switch with many things connected to it, is losing connection. Causing major issues ..... just more pronounced for him because of EFI. Only suggesting, maybe run a different wire from your coil to hot instead of through the ignition switch. Possible your ignition switch is acting weird?

Very good explanation there. When I solder wires, I tin them first then connect the two ends to extend a wire. This does wick. ..... I'm not a great solderer. .... But mid stream in my wire harness I may have a few of these soldered extensions. Same time I feel comfortable with a good crimp on a connector. When I wire my truck, I will use both methods .... use common sense to decide how each connection should be made ..... it is not written in stone how it should be done. A few years ago having starter issues on my SBC 350. Probably a bad solenoid .... let it cool down & would start normal .... possible a bad battery cable .... The trigger wire going to the solenoid was toasty near the exhaust. I just replaced all 3. I soldered the trigger wire extension above the engine, then crimped the connector going to the solenoid. ...... I can go both ways ??? Another thing I added was multiple layers of heat shrink to get the wire past the exhaust heat.

With the reading/research I have done preparing to wire my truck. The schooling others have given me .... Thanks @Sam Buchanan I'm going with non insulated crimp connectors then heat shrink ..... your repair looks fine. They are a better quality connector. & you have a good ratchet crimp tool. My thoughts are we can visually inspect our crimp, tug & twist .... then cover with heat shrink. Not so much when using insulated connectors. A man on another forum with a lot of automotive wiring experience wrote a wiring 101 howto ..... He has been doing wiring for 50 years. He does non insulated, solder, heat shrink .... Just like @sniper .... Me being a carpenter that knows nothing about automotive wiring take a lot of stock in these opinions. iirc, sniper was trained in the Navy on electronics & works with electronics today .... lifetime of experience ..... this is good advice. Now on the other hand, @Sam Buchanan is very knowledgeable in electronics .... I have no idea of their background ..... I believe he is a pilot. He said one thing to me that I will not forget. If solder is the best way, then why does the Aviation industry crimp when building military jets? ..... No expense spared. @OUTFXD I think what I'm trying to say is, asking crimp or solder? ..... just about equal to what kind of oil to use? Either way is good. Everyone will have a opinion. ..... your way is fine.

I do have a Tanks for my truck .... It claims when you purchase it, a minor modification is needed. ..... For the tank of my year of truck. Pretty simple & happy with it .... they told the truth on sale. .... I would buy it again, I can not answer for the fit on your vehicle.

A guess would be for vacuum wipers? On my B1B the vacuum advance from distributor goes to the carburetor. Do you have a vacuum advance? The vacuum connection on the manifold is for the wipers. Do you have vacuum or electric wipers in 53? .... I imagine a vacuum operated 2spd rear end might use that port That is for a 1949 23" 218 in a 1/2 ton truck ..... Big trucks have different vacuum options.

I agree @Sniper I'm only suggesting that we can learn & create our own replacements part needed .... rather then send them to a vendor & get overseas parts in return. I'm terrible because I bought a newly rebuilt carburetor from RockAuto. .... I never sent my $90 core back, I rebuilt it. Now RA has no carburetors available because nobody sent the cores back .... I may be a contributor to it .... would happen sooner or later anyways. Think of the thread going down the babbit hole ..... we have to make our own parts or find those that can. Is rebuilding a vacuum advance so far out of the home garage range? If so maybe we need to try new things, like welding the advance at full timing? ..... 18 year old kids been playing with vacuum advance since the 1940's. You can try replacing the springs with lighter or heavier too suit your needs ... some light oil to get everything moving helps .... Need a rubber diaphragm? You may need to make that.. No there is no kit for it .... but has been done for decades .... A learning curve. I'm not trying to be disrespectful, just saying I would never give up my core in the first place. I'm glad AB came through with the return.

Exactly .... lets think about it. How would you rebuild a fuel pump if you never did one. How about a water pump .... A carburetor? A vacuum advance is built by human hands. It is rebuilt by human hands. I may have a learning curve ahead to do it .... I'm not afraid of that. Exactly what tools did they have in the 1900's to build vacuum advance, that we do not have today? Lets be serious here, I have no idea what it takes to rebuild a vacuum advance .... no interest in it at this time. If it did come up, modern technology like the internet serves a purpose & a learning tool. We have modern tools ..... I THINK WE COULD REBUILD ONE IF NEEDED! I'm only suggesting I would never gave up the original quality part for a core charge. ..... Even if I needed to hire a bum smarter then me to do the job .... would be better to start with original then some overseas crap. Just saying no. I would buy the new one, then learn to fix the old one. Many of these adventures of mine sometimes cost me money .... I usually get a lesson from them.

Just amazing how these old flathead's run. While I've never driven it on the road as a daily driver, it has sat for many months without being started .... gas can tie wired on the front bumper & 3' of hose going from fuel pump to gas can. .... poor people have poor ways. Just saying the carb is always dry .... I like to add gas to the carb, sometimes I cheat & spray some either into the air filter. I use full choke, turn it over & it starts almost instantly .... very first thing to do is open the choke. It starts fast with a choke, it will not stay running with a choke .... You start it, open the choke ... sits and idles fine. After not running for months. I probably will not need to use the choke, if I ran it on some daily basis. I had a 1965 elcamino with a 283, exact same way ... turn the key on a cold winter morning, started instantly with no choke. My flathead 6 so far is the closest engine that ever matched that.

@desoto1939 is correct .... too carry it a bit further, I think it is a mindset .... some have it some do not. For example, I never would have returned the core in the first place. I would have used the new part, then rebuild the old one & store it on the shelf for future need. I did the same with my carburetor. I kept my original fuel pump .... I have a new water pump on the shelf, but old one is still working. Original fuel pump is in a box, needs rebuilding. I really think it is a mindset .... for example I had a old seat from some mid sized truck .... too narrow for my Dodge. Some would throw it away .... I stripped it down to save the metal. Good heavy 16 gauge+ metal. I see two taillight brackets & a needed alternator bracket. ..... Texas gold right there .... I aint throwing nothing away or sending cores back.