I, and a few others, have seriously considered some kind of adapter or bracket to allow use of a torque tube with a newer trans. You'd think it would be simple enough, but the rear axle actually pushes the tube to make the car move. A bracket on the crossmember sounds good, but the engine is on rubber mounts and you can't have movement between the TT and engine. AMCs solution was to rubber mount the trans crossmember as well, but there is still semi-rigid link between the engine and TT. So the TT has to be mounted to the trans itself. This puts more stress on the engine and trans mount, and newer ones weren't designed for fore and aft stresses. So it really isn't practical. Nor is using the rear axle. The pinion shaft isn't drilled for a bolt to hold a yoke on, and I'm not sure it has the same splines and diameter as open drive axle pinion shafts. The seal is designed to fit the slip coupling at the axle and may not fit around a yoke and an open drive axle seal may not fit the seal carrier (especially if the yoke is bigger in diameter). Since axles are relatively easy to swap even between makes, it just isn't practical to spend a couple hundred dollars modifying the old TT axle. What really brought this up was Andrew's mention of length. The TT internal shaft on sixes is like an axle shaft. It would need to be resplined if shortened, and can't be easily lengthend. A new shaft would be required, or a longer slip coupling for the axle end could be made is only an inch or less more length was needed. Both would be costly -- even shortening and having tho original resplined would be a bit expensive. The V-8 shaft, however, is in two pieces. The front is tubular and can be made longer or shorter by any driveline shop, as can the outer tube. The only problem with V-8 shafts is the CV joint on 63-66 models. Those are the only years that joint was used, and it was only used by one other company -- Lincoln. The joint nor repair parts are no longer made. Earlier Rambler V-8s only used a single joint, so the CV joint isn't really necessary. So the shaft can be lengthened and a single joint or even a newer/different style CV joint used. The trans end can't be reused, but all the BW V-8 trannys used the same yoke as a T-10, and that is still available, or one can be picked up at a salvage yard from any 67-71 AMC driveshaft. --------------------------------------------------- Date: Monday, August 21, 2006 09:41 AM From: andrew hay <adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> " From: farna@xxxxxxx " " " While having a more modern trans would certainly be a benefit, you're " hindered by the torque tube. I don't think a T-14 or T-15 will bolt " right in, just the T-86 or T-89. Heavy duty, but still no synchro " first. both the t-14 and t-15 would fit the engine side but of course were never made in tt versions, so you'd have to find one of the rare o/d versions so you could swap your od-tt adapter parts on, but they'd probably end up the wrong length... if you wanted to try making an adapter, you could start with a car t-14 or t-15. put a 4wd tailshaft housing on it and make the adapter bolt to it on one side, the tt on the other. _______________________________________________ AMC-List mailing list AMC-List@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.amc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/amc-list or go to http://www.amc-list.com