Thanks for the replys guys.
Im resistant to use a transaxle because then that located the engine way forward in the car. I want it actually to end up being mid engine. Im planning to cut the firewall and push it back around 10 inches. Im not running anything under the dash board (HVAC) so I figure why not put the engine there.
i was concerned with cutting the closed knuckles open for strength reasons, I just was not sure if they were the same thing except one of em was cut by the factory and one was not.
I still want to run a 5x4.5 bolt pattern so any hub that I run, Im planning to have redrilled since most chevy parts ran 4.75.
Is the geometry of the s-10/blazer knuckle good enough to run in a car like Im building? Id really like to get the best and lightest parts I can afford.
Im not trying to use any special one-off parts for this build if I can afford it. The STS diff is made by getrag but Im not sure what size the ring gear is. The one I found has a 3.23 which should work out great for me.
The trans I want to use is the 545rfe 5 speed auto that comes stock behind the 5.7 Hemi which I also want to run. I have one sitting around rite now from a 4x4. Im trying to just bolt a gutted transfer case to it to send power to the front. The trans is rather large and heavy but at least all that weight will be behind the motor and very low to the ground, helping out weight distribution.
The car Im building is a '68 Dodge Charger. Its pretty much a bare shell rite now so I have a blank canvass to build from. Im obviously not doing a typical resto on it. This car is getting to most ridiculous parts I can think of. I have a 3 link rear full floating 9 inch already in place minus coilovers, watts link and sway bar. I just bought lower control arms which are chromo pieces from a nascar, uppers will come from the same genre. I want it to be built to excess in terms of performance. I want it to be an engineering exercise I can drive.
Ive seen that AWD Vette, it looked just a vette with the front end of an S-10 frame welded onto it. Its neat but not what Im going for. Obviously I want it to be as light as possible and have the best weight distribution I can build. The STS front diff is a very compact unit which will not take up much space and have minimal weigh impact. Then just the CV shafts that plug into what ever knuckle/hub I can figure out to run. One good thing to see is that the vette had iirc a 7.2 inch front ring gear which was able to live with all that power.
Ill look into those parts from coleman, thanks for the tip. The motor Im running will have 4-500hp/tq, I figure that the front end parts should be able to live with half of that. I see FWD cars with 300hp w/o many problems.
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