Talk about a trying situation! Some time ago, the 8.25-inch rearend in my wife’s ’75 Dart Sport suffered an ugly demise while “testing” at Numidia Raceway in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, this happened only one week before the Chryslers at Carlisle show. I was informed that her not being able to take the car to the show was not an option.
At that time, I couldn’t locate a bolt-in replacement A-Body rear. However, I did locate a useable 8.75-inch rear out of a ’65 B-Body. I relocated the spring perches and stabbed it under the car. While it worked, it was definitely too wide. An A-Body rear measures 57 1/8 inches, drum-to-drum, while the B-Body rear comes in at 60 1/8 inches. That extra 1 1/2 inches on each side mean a lot in regard to outer fender-lip clearance. To say the tires rubbed when hitting bumps is an understatement. To remedy this discrepancy, we refrained from putting anyone or anything in the rear seat or trunk. That had to change.
When cutting the old housing ends off, you must ensure a straight cut. I marked the axle tubes with tape so I could follow that with the band saw. Once the old ends are off, bevel the cut end of the axle tube and the edge of the new ends so you have a good area to weld. The weld must penetrate to keep the ends attached and a V-groove (beveled edges) ensures proper attachment.
I finally decided it’s time to either A: locate an A-Body rear and install it. Or B: narrow the B-Body rear to fit. If you have done any research about A-Body 8.75 rearend housings, you surely realize how scarce and expensive they are to acquire. At the time of this writing, bare A-Body 8.75-inch rearend housings are in the area of $500. This prompted me to locate the parts I needed to narrow the wider B-Body rear. If we calculate the cost of the B-Body housing as $0 (I already had one), axle housing ends at $110, you can see why I felt it financially responsible to narrow the rear I already had. In order to do that, I needed parts….
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