65 Comet with 390

[loman]

Still waiting for axles. But here is a couple of pics of what I have done. The housing I am narrowing is a 9" from a 68 F100. The engine must have been offset as both axles are the same length and almost the same size as the long axle on the stock 8" comet. The axle tube is 3.125 diameter. I called Caltracs about purchasing new spring plates and ubolts for the new housing but the gentleman I spoke to insisted that a 3.125 housing was never made. After a small discussion with him, I told him that I didn't need to buy anything and I'll just modify what I have and save the money. In my world 3.125 is as close to 3.125 as you can get.

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[loman]

Before I did anything I took measurements of current tire clearance on the inside of tire to leaf spring. The distance was the about same on both sides front and back of tire. About 1.125 to 1.250. Took these measurements with suspension loaded. Car was sitting on dollies on all 4 wheels.

[loman]

We jacked up car and put a 4x8 sheet of plywood underneath. Then we took a plumbob and made marks for outside face of brake drum, both inside & outside of each leaf spring. Then made a mark for centerline of leaf spring and pinion. After a lot of comparing between the 8 and 9" housings we decided we only needed to narrow the drivers side and cut about 4" from drivers side. Notice the difference between the tube sizes on each housing by the backing plates, that difference will have to be dealt with also.

[loman]

Since I couldn't purchase new spring plates and ubolts from Caltracs i modified the existing spring plate. You can see the new ubolt I purchased for the 3.125 housing as compared to what was on the car. I purchased the ubolts and new spring perches from an off road truck website. Then i just elongated the holes on the spring plates to accomodate the wider ubolts. I also welded a flat washer that had a smaller hole than the the spring perch hole that way the rearend will be located in the exact same position any time removed and can't move in the oversized hole of the spring perch.

[loman]

I had to modify the backing plates for the new housing. The spring plates on the 8" are located just above the 2 bump outs on the backing plate for the emergency brake cable so no big deal. On the 9" with the bigger diameter housing the emergency brake bumps on the backing plates interfed with the spring plate. I cut the humps out and welded in a piece of sheet metal to fill the hole and now I have clearance.
windows print screen

[loman]

I also drilled and tapped a drain plug on the bottom of the housing. Then we mounted the housing in the car and put the third member in it to get driveshaft measurement. That is now on order as well. So now I am in a holding pattern again until I get some more parts.