1963 Pedestal type rocker shafts

I have 2 newly rebuilt 2463200 casting 383 heads. They were from a 63 Dodge. They are the pedestal mount type for the rocker shafts. Long story short the machine shop lost the rocker shafts, rockers and pedestals. I sourced out some of the pedestals and thought I could use a later model BB rocker shaft. Turns out the shafts that I had on a later model head were too big around to fit into the pedestals. So what am I looking for? Do I have to find the shafts and rockers from the early pedestal style head only? Thanks for any advice.

i'm thinking 59-63 [or until they changed to 6 bolt valve covers]big block heads, 383 or 413 engines would be what you need to look for.

Actually they started in 57 and ran till 64.IIRC my kid has the ones from his 62 413 with the heads in the garage.We went to my built 516s before he sold the car.Rocky

Thanks for the information so far. So the opinion is that the shafts themselves did get bigger for 64 on heads? Looking at places like rockauto they list the same part number for rocker shafts for early heads (like 62) as late (like 76). Rockauto is not always right.

I thought the shafts were the same - in fact I am 95% sure I measured both and they were the same.

Many times the ends of the shafts get flared out when the plug gets installed. That would prevent the shaft from going into the pedestal mount. Its usually not an issue with the newer heads but would be with these.

Years ago I bought new DC shafts and they would not fit on my Crane cast rockers because of this issue. I had to grind the ends down to get them on.

The factory P/N changed in '64 but it shouldn't affect interchangeability; I have seventies shafts that fit (tightly) in the pedestals.

Just remember that early B/RB's used a smaller diameter pushrod, so the lifter cups will be smaller for original lifters, pretty sure the cup in the rocker is too but it's been 20+ years since I had my hands of a set of early rockers.

I do know I ended up running a set of early pushrods with later rockers and lifters without issue, but you cannot go the other way (early lifters/later pushrods).