Heard and Flat Ernie mentioned the possible use of a '34 torque tube and drive shaft. During the last couple of weeks while Heard and I were discussing measurements and methods for shortening the torque tube, Heard mentioned to me that he thought that a modified T-tube length should probably be about 61-7/8". Now while I'm not usually good for very much of anything, I have this uncanny thing about remembering certain numbers. I thought I remembered a '33-'34, V8 T-tube length being something like 61-13/16" (NOTE: 4-cylinder T-tubes and d-shafts are 1-1/2" shorter than V8). Sure enough, when I checked my notes, Heard's measurement indicated that in all likelyhood, a V8 torque tube from the aforementioned '33-'34 models should bolt-in "as-is"....un-modified! I suppose it's also possible that the driveshaft may have worked as well, but we didn't get that far, as we didn't have a '34 d-shaft to measure accurately.
I'm not surprised that
Flat Ernie was already on to this nifty bit of old Ford trivia, 'cuz I was aware several years ago that Ernie had the desire to eventually adapt one of these Jeep-influenced T5s into his '40 coupe with a blown French flathead, along with it's T-tube and banjo rear end. Ernie's sweet coupe sure would be a "sleeper" in this guise.
Obviously, Ernie had already done quite a bit of engineering and homework on his own. As many of you will note
, Flat Ernie has long been recognized on the FordBarn and the HAMB as
the "Go-To" T5 guru. As Ernie and Heard noted, this project is certainly much easier to accomplish than it sounds like initially. I'm hoping that this thread has at least encouraged a few to consider this mod on their own cars. DD