The 1947 - Present Chevrolet & GMC Truck Message Board Network - View Single Post - 47-55.1 My 53 GMC 3/4 ton project

burnin oil · 11-11-2021, 09:54 AM

Cool project and I am glad that someone else plays with these old 8 luggers. Before you get to into swapping the rear you may want to see what you have now. Many of the LS swap guys say to go 4.10 gears and your truck has a good chance of having 4.57s if it has a HO52 axle. If so you can just update what you have. Later 14 bolt brakes will bolt on and a detroit locker can be added by using 14 bolt axles. There is a thread on this board that goes into this. The guy who made the thread did a SRW truck and the info works on DRW axles also. I just did the upgrades on my 57 to get 3.5 inch wide brakes. There was also some talk of using factory GM disc rears but I didn't pay much attention to it since I prefer rear drums on a work truck. Nothing wrong with a 14 bolt but you know the current axle is the correct width. Parts for the HO52 can be hard to get but redoing a 14 bolt is not cheap either.

11-11-2021, 09:54 AM	#4
burnin oil Registered User Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Eastern TN Posts: 1,921	Re: My 53 GMC 3/4 ton project Cool project and I am glad that someone else plays with these old 8 luggers. Before you get to into swapping the rear you may want to see what you have now. Many of the LS swap guys say to go 4.10 gears and your truck has a good chance of having 4.57s if it has a HO52 axle. If so you can just update what you have. Later 14 bolt brakes will bolt on and a detroit locker can be added by using 14 bolt axles. There is a thread on this board that goes into this. The guy who made the thread did a SRW truck and the info works on DRW axles also. I just did the upgrades on my 57 to get 3.5 inch wide brakes. There was also some talk of using factory GM disc rears but I didn't pay much attention to it since I prefer rear drums on a work truck. Nothing wrong with a 14 bolt but you know the current axle is the correct width. Parts for the HO52 can be hard to get but redoing a 14 bolt is not cheap either.