I have a 73 Dart slant six with a 7 1/4 rear end with the big wheel bolt pattern. Problem is just moved to the desert in Indio,Ca. My Dart has low rear end gears, at least 3.23 but probally 3.55. Not too much fun on the freeway driving to Los Angeles. Looking for 2.76 or higher.

I can't find anyone who has high ring and pinon gears for the rear end and all the rear ends I find in the junk yards have the small wheel bolt pattern.

If I can find a high geared rear end, can I use my present axles in the new rear end?

Anyone got a high geared rear end in So. Cal. they don't want?

Any other suggestions?

Need Help.

Thanks

You cannot put your axels in the other rear, but you can put the other gears in your rear.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

Interesting. If your Dart is automatic, it would've come with 2.76s. Sounds like someone might've swapped in a different rear axle somewhere along the line, perhaps from a stick-shift car with 3.23s. It would be very unusual to find 3.55s. You're sure the trans is shifting into 3rd...right?

You might want to try a search on www.car-part.com and see what you can scare up. I'm not quite sure where Indio is, but I do find two results when I run the search limited to California.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

As long as the donor rear axle is a 1973-1976 A-body rear axle then you can swap your axle shafts into it as it will have the proper tapered tubes/etc... the problem exists when you find a pre-1973 and the axle shafts are not the same length,etc....

It would be much easier to just roll a unit under the car and bolt it up, than swapping the gears and pulling all the guts...

-D.Idiot

Correct me if I am wrong, but the small bolt pattern axles have a different bearing then the large bolt pattern axles, which does not allow for an axle swap, to change bolt pattern.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

Yep. BBP has different ends on the axle tubes, along with having a 5 bolt retainer. SBP only has a 4 bolt retainer, and a smaller end on the tube.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I haven't worked on one of these in a long time...Been doing too much time on the 8.25"
that's right, the BBP bearings is something like 2.875" OD.

I see that in it's final rendition that the SBP rear was only optioned with 9" drums, and most of the parts have a 60's era part number for them, the BBP axles got the 10" brakes only...

Oddly looking over the 7 1/4" 2.76 BBP and a couple of 8 1/4" rears I have... like Big D said the 7 1/4" has 5 bolts for the backing plate, and the 8 1/4" have 5 holes, but only 4 bolts attaching the backing plates to the axle....


My Bad!

-D.idiot

Finding a BBP 7 1/4 rear with 2.76 gears should be pretty easy. You can always pull the axles and swap gears, its not all that bad. I did it about 7 years ago using a homemade puller.

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Just as another bit of useless trivia, the BBP 10" brakes off of a 7-1/4" will bolt right on to an 8-1/4" and an 8-3/4" that has a set of Moser BBP axles. The brakes will not work on redrilled SBP axles because of the bearing spacing.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.