7 1/4 Upgrade
- Thread starter aimplus
- Start date
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Furiousvip
Well-Known Member
Get an 8 1/4 from a junk yard...it's cheap and a direct swap
dusterdan
Sublime Member
^^this, they're cheap durable and plentiful!
I'm surprised your 75' has the small bolt pattern, I thought most if not all had BBJ by that time. Kinda weird....
I'm surprised your 75' has the small bolt pattern, I thought most if not all had BBJ by that time. Kinda weird....
Not if it came with Drum brakes on the front...
Oklacarcollecto
Life is an experiment
75 will have the bbj upper control arms even on sbp drum brakes.
2 Darts
A-body Addicted
Is the idea to take a 7¼ that has sbp and convert it to bbp? I thought about doing it but after checking it out, IMO it is a lost cause.
The tubes on the sbp 7¼ are shorter than the bbp version. This means that sticking a bbp shaft in a sbp housing will not work. The end of the shaft will not be supported by the bearing and the brake drum will make minimal if any contact with the shoes.
IMO time and money would be better spent finding a bbp A-body Mopar rear.
All 73 & > disk brake A-bodies were bbp. Regardless of bbp/sbp, all 73 & > got the larger ball joint UCA.
dustya_383
Well-Known Member
Ditch the 7.25 and grab an 8.25 that's the best bang for your buck
Jo Diesel
My other car is a Dodge
When I broke my 7 1/4 you could fit the entire contents into a 2 lb coffee can
mischiefdart
Well-Known Member
I have had four 7 1/4 rears and beat on them mercilessly. None of them broke. If you swap in an 8 1/4 you will neeed a shorter driveshaft.
68'barracuda
Well-Known Member
Well I've changed it over on my barracuda(7 1/4 to 8 1/4) and the driveshaft fit right back in with no changes.
Well, I could be mistaken but I believe the axle to U joint centerline is longer on the 8 1/4 (about 1 1/2" to 2"). If you used the same DS, assuming it was correct for the 7 1/4 and you installed it with the rear end hanging, you may have issues soon enough. If the slip yoke is too far into the trans and you load the rear suspension real hard it could blow out a U joint, or tear up the tailshaft on the trans.
nuttyprof
Well-Known Member
Sorry to hijack this thread, but with all the negative comments about the 7.25 this seems the right place for this. I would like to find a 7.25 A body rear end with bbp to put in my 62 Valiant that I'm building for fuel economy. It will not be "beat on" and it weighs less as well as takes less power just to spin the parts. If someone near me has one they are pulling because "they are to weak" I'll take it off your hands.
C130 Chief
Mechanical Genius
And I just hauled a BBP 7 1/4 to the scrap yard... ALL of the BBP 7 1/4 axles had 10" brakes. All SBP after 72 were 9" brakes and had a different length housing. So the easiest way to convert your current axle assembly is to swap to a different axle assembly.
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