question about the lark 8 rear end

[mookandairin]

as you all have read I am going to be building a lark with a twin turbo sbc making about 850-+1000 hp. I am giong to cut the boost on the thing to around 8-10 lbs so it will be around 600 or so.I am in need to get my motor out of the machine shop so I am thinking about selling my 12 bolt possi rear.the q. is how much can the sutde rear take before it becomes a statistic? as I will turn things down to acomadate the stude rear for now untill I can get a ford 9" built for the power. thanks for teh help.

Soda Can Dan

[Alan]

The Dana 44 will take quite a beating. The weak point is the axles at the key ways. If you use an automatic trans and do not do trans brake starts it should do just fine.

[mookandairin]

dayna 44.........humm I am suprised literally.that is good news to me as I think I might keep it in there I know you can build them up quite a bit.and if not my cousin has got a dana 60 around somewhere with gears for it.do you know if dana 60 gears will fit in it?as in are they interchangeable with a 44?

[StudeDave57]

Just BE SURE it IS a '44'!!!
I seem to recall that your ride is an early Lark~
some (most?) of those had '27s' in them...

[DEEPNHOCK]

No. Totally different differential.
The Dana 60 will need new stuff for 600, 800, 1000 hp.
I'd start with the brakes first.

dayna 44.........humm I am suprised literally.that is good news to me as I think I might keep it in there I know you can build them up quite a bit.and if not my cousin has got a dana 60 around somewhere with gears for it.do you know if dana 60 gears will fit in it?as in are they interchangeable with a 44?

[mookandairin]

hwat gear does it have now? it is a 60 lark 8 and it had a 3 speed on the tree with 15" wheels. the rear is totally stock at this point

[mookandairin]

how do I fig out the size of the rear on that thing is there a tag on it somewhere?

[barnlark]

On the back of your differential at about 4 o'clock to the right of the cover is your number in a raised casting number. They offered a 23, 27, & 44. They also had a TT (posi) offered. As Dave mentioned above, most were the 27. The gear ratio tags should be under the cover's bolts if you are lucky. There are flanged axle kits for the TT 44 that will take quite a bit of power.

I don't want to be a buzz kill for you, but that's a lot of power for a car not built for it. Even if you beef up the suspension and install top notch brakes, it will be a very tricky handling car and maybe not what you imagine for anything but a straight-line killer mod. Good luck, though. I have accumulated more '59-'60 parts than for which I care to admit. Some are easy, some not so much. My 1960 Lark TT diff is seen below.

Twin Traction Tags with the Dana 44 shown at 4 o'clock


Ratio Tag: This one is a 3:31:1. Yours may be a 3:07:1, as was my original 27.


Close up of the tag and casting #44. Yours may have a 27 there, instead.

[candbstudebakers]

Nice looking tags Dave., he could have almost anything under his car at this time in point, very well might be a 354 gear, or 373, but then if over drive maybe 410, if no tags for the gear he can pull the cover and it is stamped on the ring gear.

[mookandairin]

you guys are the best. thank you for your help.I am doing research on the 27 and the 44 right now. them tags if they are there are going to be GOD sent. but like I said,if they are there lets hope

[mookandairin]

Nice looking tags Dave., he could have almost anything under his car at this time in point, very well might be a 354 gear, or 373, but then if over drive maybe 410, if no tags for the gear he can pull the cover and it is stamped on the ring gear.

it was a manual trans 3 on the tree I think

[barnlark]

Nice looking tags Dave.

Heh, heh, Bob...yeah, two of those replacements from a Castro Valley stash. A little too much wax protector on them now.
He could have anything back there, you're right. I think he said he had the original 259 in there and was getting rid of it, so I'm just guessing the rest is original. Original Stude owners sure ordered cars with equipment all over the map, though. Hopefully a little Gunk and the dissolved crud will reveal the differential number and the ratio tag at 7 o'clock at the very least.

[JimC]

Not to get off topic too far, but was twin traction only available on the rear ends with the Dana 44? Knowing that would make my life a little easier when I finally get to the rear end on my Lark.

I'm tellin' you Soda, you should consider keeping that Stude engine. It might not look like anything special, but one thing I've always liked about Studebaker was the quality of their engines. Of course, if you ever get tired of tripping over it in your garage, I'll scrape up all my penies to pay for freight down here :-)

[barnlark]

No, there were other TTs available besides the Dana 44: 23, 27. The Chassis Parts Catalog lists them for each year and the many ratios with which they could optioned on pages 300 to 302.

[Da Tinman]

I would suggest getting a pro built 9", with those hp levels its going to need a brace and some fairly high rent parts in it too.

(pm me with what your looking at or have been quoted and i'll let you know if its a good deal or not.)

as for using a stocker type rear with 500+ hp,, use a skinny tire and hope it never hooks.

what type rear suspension and such are you planning?