Today we're dealing with an A roadster pickup with '48 Ford running gear-that is, almost a complete '48 drivetrain. You see, this Flathead is backed by a T5 five-speed pirated from an S10 Chevy (and a Speedway Motors adapter, but that's a story for another day). As you can plainly see, this old banjo is ready for a modern driveshaft-thanks to Speedway Motors, that is!
Building a traditional hot rod, are ya? Well, you can't beat split bones, a good old Flathead and a banjo rear end combo to set the stage. But there's a rub-you want to use a late-model tranny behind that Flatty, but the torque tube setup just ain't gonna fly. Well, never fear, 'cause good old Speedway Motors comes to the rescue again! This time they save the day with a super easy to install and pretty darned inexpensive solution, their Open Driveline conversion kits.
Speedway offers the conversion kits for '32 to '48 Ford banjo rear ends in both six and ten-spline versions, plus they offer one for Model As as well. The conversion kit runs from around $270.00 for the six-spline, $300.00 for the ten-spline, and $355.00 for the Model A, a great deal for a problem solver of this sort-plus, as a bonus, there's not one bit of machining required! Yep, no more dealing with the local machine shop; you can do it yourself in your home shop in a matter of an afternoon. Think we're exaggerating? Well, follow along and take a look-our install took about an hour, though we do have to admit that we didn't have to remove the torque tube and shaft assembly as they were long gone by the time we got our hands on the truck. No matter, it's an easy chore thanks to the folks at Speedway.
