MackTheFinger

Mine were breaking internally, at the pinion support. There's a thin place in the casting there. I was using junkyard parts and a lot of them were already cracked. The nodular iron housings would have worked better and the aftermarket diffs are hopefully beefed up there, too. Wheel hop in the Galaxie was killing them. If the rear end of the car shook you knew the diff was busted.. Once I learned to slip the clutch I didn't have that problem anymore. It was operator error as much as anything else..

Now, PA; your anti GM bias is showing.. ? I agree with your assessment that almost anything will work for the street, unless you're one of those guys who thinks anything less than 500 HP is for sissies. There's flat track racing at DuQuoin today!! ? update: Just heard, races are cancelled.. ?

That sounds like a great car!!

I always liked Sox and Martin.. Along with Stone Woods and Cook, Big John Mazmanian, Grumpy Jenkins, Wild Willie Borsch, Dyno Don Nicholson, Don Garlits.. and E.J. Potter on two wheels. Those were my heroes...

Nothing in particular to do with this thread but in 1971 I broke at least half a dozen 9 inch Ford differential cases, one right after another. They all broke at the pinion support. I was running a 406 4-speed in a '62 Galaxie. The only way I could keep a rear end together was to slip the clutch until you could smell it, otherwise KA-BOOM!! and you're washing pieces of differential out of the axle tubes. I later ran '56-'57 Olds and 12 bolt Chevy's and never had a problem but I was running small block Chevy engines in Chevelles and Novas then. Those cars were easy on parts. You could just dump the clutch and bang gears. More fun than should be legal.. Supposedly an 8.8 Ford is good for 400 hp. If I manage to cram a 500 Caddy engine into my '47 Dodge I'll find out.

Pulling the battery cable as a first step could eliminate the battery as a problem but as others have pointed out there are other possibilities than the generator itself. I was taught that the generator motor test is fairly reliable. There's a YouTube video by Chris Fisher that demonstrates it on a positive ground generator.

I look through the local obituaries fairly regularly, it's a sign of age I suppose.. A couple of days ago there was an obit for the brother of one of my old gf's. I bought his '65 Mustang while he was in Vietnam in '69 and the romance ended before he got back. About five years later I stopped by a shop run by a guy I knew pretty well and this tough looking long-haired guy came over, called me by name and said "I've seen your picture before. You're one of my sister's old boyfriends and you bought my car while I was in VN!!" It was a weird moment until he shook my hand, hugged me and said he was glad to finally meet me... He was in Savannah, Ga when he died and I found out that my old gf is somewhere in Texas.. I hope to never run into her again!!

Love the car!! Get 'er running and enjoy it as is!!

The OP asked a simple question, What rear axle would be the easiest swap into a 1947 Desoto? and followed with questions about later model rear axles. Not once did they ask about the possibility of swapping gearing in their original differential or the merits of one braking system over another. Just to add to the conversation, other than the necessity of changing driveshafts swapping a "pumpkin" on one of these really isn't much simpler than changing the whole assembly. It is however, easier than arguing with a fence post.

The Saltpetre Cave is really more a bowl scooped out of a cliff face. There was a place called Caveland at Festus, Mo just south of St Louis that had a skating rink and concerts back in the good ol days. MC5, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, and a bunch of other people played there. I think it was originally a mine. Pretty cool place. Last I heard someone was living there. Maybe Fred and Wilma???

Yeah, that's somewhere you want to go! They useta hold that at Hogrock at Cave-In-Rock, Il. Law enforcement got it stopped. Wasn't my crowd so I never attended.

I doubt there'll be any real trouble. This is basically a blues and gospel line-up. The Blind Boys of Alabama is a straight up gospel group with a history going back to pre WWII, Dumpstaphunk is a New Orleans based group, sort of a continuation of the Neville Brothers, and the North Mississippi All Stars is a new-era blues band. None of them really encourage dangerous craziness. Most of the events I attended in years past were invitation only bike runs. Everyone understood that you should mind your own business and respect everyone else's right to do the same. The ones that allowed the general public to attend were different. The level of respect went way down and problems followed. I agree whole heartedly with what you said in your first response. The world would be better if everyone understood it. We do not all have to like the same things.. only a few things in common is basically all you need to establish a kinship That said, I doubt we'll attend this one. I've seen the three I mentioned earlier in this post and have no desire to put up with the crowd and the heat this time.

They had concerts at the old Saltpetre Cave site in the '70s and early '80s. The locals weren't too happy about it and I doubt there was much profit since the place was unsecured and basically nobody paid to get in. The new owners have been working on the property for the last 20 years or so and made a bunch of improvements.

You guys are making me feel old.. or closer to my age, anyway.. just earlier today I was talking with a friend I hadn't seen for a long time. He said he now has 13 grandkids and his youngest son was finally getting married at 36 years old. This old friend is younger than me!

My granny was born sometime around 1885 and died in 1960. I rember her well. No miniskirts then. OTOH I was present for all the fun stuff. Someone gave my wife some pics of our wedding recently. I can honestly say I'd forgotten how shockingly short her maid of honor's dress was!! ?