'55 Ring Gear - rivets v. bolts

[Fr. Buick]

Has anyone ever put the later-55 bolt-on ring gear onto an early-55 or prior rivet-style differential carrier?

I have an angle on NOS gears for my '54, but the ring is the late '55 bolt-on type.

SO, can I modify my stock differential carrier, or do I need to find another to suite the bolt-on ring?

Grateful for your help,

Doug Cook

[Leif Holmberg]

Maybe this will help you to find out how to do?.

Leif in Sweden.

[MrEarl]

This is out of the 1955 Product School Manual that details all the changes made from year to year. Since the rivet/bolt was a later in the year change it may not cover that particular thing. Maybe this will help....to confuse even more possbly:o

Edited February 12, 2010 by MrEarl (see edit history)

[MrEarl]

here's some additional info, too lazy to post it again

1954 BUICK | The Forum - Adapting a '55 bolt-on ring to my '54 diff.

[Fr. Buick]

OK, Ladies and Gentlemen, here is what I can surmise from the pages posted by Mr. Earl, who came through as always...

There are some serious differences:

--'55 ring gear is bolted onto the diff carrier, requiring a '55 diff carrier and the special bolts.

--'55 pinion assembly is notably different, but will fit into the the '54 diff case. It will need, however, the '55 bearings, lock sleave, spacer and oil seal, which were all redesigned. Assembly will be somewhat different too, due to the design change in the bearings.

I am informed by Old Tank that bearings for the '55 pinion are getting hard to come by, so this should be considered as well.

Long story short, I will go with a used '54 ring and pinion, since my mechanic has all the other bearings ready to go.

I guess I will just have to start collecting a few rear ends for future needs.

Thanks to all, and hope this helps. Caveat emptor,

Doug Cook

[MrEarl]

thanks for deciphering all the info and presenting that great summary Monsignor. Rear ends can be a bigger headache than the Dynaflow in my opinion. Finding a for sure good one is also a challenge since they gather condensate from sitting in junkyards, the water goes to the bottom and eats up the gears. Half the ones I pull the inspection plate off of are a quarter full of water and the gears are pitted bad. So yea, since you're gonna drive it, better be looking for spare parts for the future.

[Bhigdog]

And don't think that a very lightly pitted ring gear will be OK. I tried that with my 55 Olds and it howled like a banshee. I thought that the pinion would have slid over the few pits without even noticing it. No dice...........Bob