Imagine a universal parts interchange database...

https://jalopnik.com/the-fascinating-company-that-tears-cars-apart-to-find-o-1787205420

Imagine if we could procure access to such a service for part swaps and junkyard shopping. Too bad each model costs about 50k+ for data.

Can we bribe an engineer somewhere?

That is all.

Yes, it's called a Hollander Interchange manual.

They've been around for decades.

In reply to Trans_Maro :

I'm curious, would Hollander show what Fiat switch gear would fit a Ferrari, for example? I've never used it beyond the car-part.com interface.

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to Trans_Maro :

I'm curious, would Hollander show what Fiat switch gear would fit a Ferrari, for example? I've never used it beyond the car-part.com interface.

I was thinking that this is the cause of the same part having completely different part numbers 99% of the time - some high-end manufacturer wants to make their customers pay the Rich Guy Tax on cheap parts already in production, so they resell them with their own part number slapped on and hope nobody notices.

Trans_Maro said:

Yes, it's called a Hollander Interchange manual.

They've been around for decades.

#jolopniked

Hollander misses the mark SO much with how I want it.  Hollander shows the options that fit, like for instance it doesn't show that the 10.25" rear axle from an F250 will fit in an F150 because the driveshafts are different but otherwise it is a bolt-in swap.

I remember (before the internets) spending hours behind the counter at the parts store thumbing through parts catalogs looking at parts specs.  It allowed me to put 3/4 ton chevy knuckles and brakes in my 66 Bonneville by selecting later B-body 9C1 upper ball joints and lower ball joints from a Dodge Durango.  It was just a matter of matching up the bolt pattern in the control arms and the taper in the ball joint shaft.  Its been so long since I've done that but I think I recall maybe buying a tapered reamer to change the taper in the upper hole from 1.5" to 1.25"

In this day and age I have to think there is some way to make software that does that for you.  Like you enter 76 3/4 ton chevy spindle and 66 Bonneville and it searches for off-the shelf parts that make it work using a database of specs.  Maybe even a rating system of how close it fits with footnotes... like;  This shock absorber will fit but you need to enlarge the bolt holes from 5/16" to 3/8"

I tried to start a low-tech thing like that at hotrodders.com with their "crankshaft coalition wiki" where every time you did a parts swap you could enter specs; like if you're doing u-joints in your P71 you could measure the driveshaft length, shaft size, u-joint sizes, and spline count so the next person doing a (for instance) Coyote/T56 swap in their Fox body would have access to that information.  It would have been a slow process but it never caught on.

Crankshaft coalition wiki rear axle swap guide with zero entries

Curtis said:

In this day and age I have to think there is some way to make software that does that for you.  Like you enter 76 3/4 ton chevy spindle and 66 Bonneville and it searches for off-the shelf parts that make it work using a database of specs.  Maybe even a rating system of how close it fits with footnotes... like;  This shock absorber will fit but you need to enlarge the bolt holes from 5/16" to 3/8"

If there were a nice tidy database of said specs somewhere, that would be easy to do. But how did you settle on 3/4 ton Chevy knuckles? First you have to work out all the knucle dimensions, which is a whole different set of complex information.

It could actually be in the parts manufacturers' best interest to work together to build this database. They'd piss off the high-end manufacturers trying to resell you plain-jane commuter car parts at ludicrous prices on one hand, but on the other hand they could take some business from custom/fabrication shops and improve the confidence of online shoppers.

I can find most stuff using Google. All I need is a part number I can find most applications that it fits.

I think the intention here is not just to find "what is a direct fit" but "what could fit and be useful for mods" like cross-model brake swaps.

The same applies to Jaguars. There is a lot of stuff in a Jaguar that came  from America.  Borg Warner transmissions Turbo 400 transmissions, Dana 44 rear ends. York Air conditioning pumps. Nuts bolts and other hardware  Etc etc etc 

GameboyRMH said:

But how did you settle on 3/4 ton Chevy knuckles? First you have to work out all the knucle dimensions, which is a whole different set of complex information.

It was a reverse engineering choice.  It was a knuckle that I knew would hold huge brakes with a common bolt pattern.  The real kicker was that the steering arm was really close to the geometry I needed.  I looked at just doing a disc brake swap from a B-body, but what fun is that?

But i understand your question.  My example is a little crazy as far as knowing all the specs, but the software could be used to narrow down things.  Instead of going to the junkyard and measuring every knuckle and researching all of its parts, this could narrow it down to a dozen or so knuckles that could fit with different possible ball joints and tie rod ends, then you would only have a few knuckles to research and measure instead of all of them.

Count the lug nuts:

Gave it a 14 bolt full floater for the back too.