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I had a 445 with an ENV 5.13:1 diff that had been (poorly) upgraded from a B14/16 to a B18. After a year of driving it with engine RPM's in the stratosphere, it broke a rear axle half shaft.
I happened to have a 544 with a spare 4.56:1 Spicer axle and a neighbor that was a welder. I decided to fabricate spring perches & have him weld them to the axle tubes of the Spicer axle.
After measuring the spring perches on the old axle, I bought a short piece of 1/8" (I think) steel "U" channel the same width and cut it to the same length as the old. Knowing the diameter of the donor axle tube, I ground & filed semi-circular notches the same diameter as the tube into the parallel sides of the new spring perches. The welder recommended bevelling the edges at 45 degrees, which I did, along with drilling two holes in the bottom of the perches for the U-bolts that clamp the axle tubes to the anchorage plates. (See the attached image.)
The axle was set up with the pinion horizontal, then the new spring perches were clamped to align with the pinion, with the bottom of the U down, under the axle tubes. The welder did a quick weld to avoid warping the axle tubes and the donor axle was ready to mount in the 445.
I believe I had to put the old brake plates on the donor axle to make this work. Also, this was the time to replace the axle bearings & seals and shim the bearings.
The 445 was much nicer to drive with the new 4.56:1 ratio. With the B18, it still had the power to pass other vehicles going up a 2000 foot, 7% grade I was commuting over twice daily.
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