knotacare said: the u joints on the half shafts had the french locks on the outside.
Not sure what ya mean there...ALL of the half shafts, afaik, had the french locks on the wheel end.
The big block, and high horse small blocks used the different yokes on the diff...the ones that used caps/bolts instead of u-bolts w/nuts.
But really...ANY of this stuff is easy enough to swap out, as witnessed by the overwhelming number of big block Sharks out there today.... far more than GM ever actually produced. Unfortunately, the VIN in '69 don't give any indication of the original engine, other than "V8".
My feeling, from looking at the pics, is that is was originally, and still is, a small block car.
The green tag on the front springs is good...that means the original springs are still on it. Big blocks had firmer springs, and installing a small block in where a big block was will make the front end sit too high. If the car looks right, as far as the way it sits, that's just another indicator of it being a small block originally.
The front stabilizer bar was also larger in diameter than the small block, but small block with the HD suspensions also had the larger bar, so....
I say forget the story about it being a big block, and just enjoy the journey of bringing it back to life.
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