7.5 to 8.25 swap findings

Been very busy, but wanted to finish up on this post so that perhaps it would help someone else doing the same swap.

I ordered a brake hose for the '75 Scamp the rear end came out of. Installed it today. Got all the fittings hand started with the bolt that holds the hose block to the rear just a few threads in. This gave me enough room to get everything to align and start without cross threading. I then tightened everything down.

For a brief moment I thought there was something wrong with the brake hose clip where it clips the hose and metal line through the body bracket. The clip just did not want to seem to align and start. I then realized that the bracket on the '71 where the line goes through has a very specific hole in it. The hole is designed to allow the hose to go in and if you lightly twist it a bit the hose will align with the hole and seat all the way. The clip slid in fine then.

Don't know if I mentioned, but the emergency brake cables hooked in on the driver side no problem. Well, I did have to pull the long passenger cable back out from the adjuster as I'd run it the wrong side of the exhaust pipe for it to be able to bolt back to the body as it did before. The long cable has a bolt that goes through a clip that bolts it to the body above the rear end.

I then realized that I was having such a hard time getting the cables to go in the adjuster because the cables have different size balls on the end of them. The adjuster has a large and a small hole to fit them. Just a matter of getting them the right way around in they went.

Got the driveshaft back today. I'd been looking at the MP rear end guide and saw that they listed the difference in length for a 7.5 rear and an 8.25 as 1.6 inches. The length I'm talking about is the yoke will stick out further towards the front of the car 1.6 inches. I took out the digital caliper and ran it to 1.6 and then held the caliper part over a tape measure. I came out really close to 1 5/8 inches. Looks like to me that for my car the 1 1/2 inch or 1 5/8 inch driveshaft sorten would work fine. Decided to go with the 1 5/8 inches derrived from the MP books. Bolts in no problem and the shaft on the trans end is sitting right where it did with the old rear end in it.

All that is left now is to bleed the brakes, but I'm holding off on that until I get the front end discs swapped for the larger bolt pattern ones. Then I'll do the lot at once.

So, swap was pretty easy. Few curves that I didn't realize with the cable differences etc., but nothing that could not be overcome.

Hope the post helps someone doing theirs.

Cheers