8.8 Ford Rearend
- Thread starter thomas
- Start date
fluidfloyd
Active Member
Thomas,
I'm not sure about the Ford 8.8" rears but I tend to believe they are the same as the Chevy 10" & 12" rear housings. GM designed the carrier to offset the pinion 1.0" in order to use the same length axle on both sides. Also, some of their vehicles offset the engines to clear steering boxes and such. Then you have to remember that transmission tailshafts most always were at a different height then the rear pinion gear. As you can see, nothing is straight and inline. If you look under some early Ford vans and some trucks, you will see they really moved the center carrier to one side. The only thing you need to do is to keep the engine crank centerline parallel with the rear pinion gear shaft both vertically and horizonally. Some people will recommend that you angle the pinion down a degree or so that the drive line is straightened out under load. Either way you don't want the angle of the pinion to go positive (up) in relation to the driveshaft. By running a little bit of offset you allow the u-joint trunions to get equally loaded and the needles to get equally lubricated. There are a number of online drive shaft companies that give you much more information then I have. Hope this helps you out.
RocknT,
The 9" Fords are a bit different when it comes to offset. Ford still used press on axle bearings with no C-Clip retainers and the left side was different from the right side. At 66" overall width I would assume that you plan on narrowing it. If you do then just center the bango in the car. It will look better and as you would be replacing axles anyway you can get them made to length. If you have any questions on narrowing a Ford then please let me know. I have built so many Ford housings that I sometimes act like a rearend. By The Way, the 9" is by far the strongest housing you can put under your car and that includes the famed DANA 60.
George
I'm not sure about the Ford 8.8" rears but I tend to believe they are the same as the Chevy 10" & 12" rear housings. GM designed the carrier to offset the pinion 1.0" in order to use the same length axle on both sides. Also, some of their vehicles offset the engines to clear steering boxes and such. Then you have to remember that transmission tailshafts most always were at a different height then the rear pinion gear. As you can see, nothing is straight and inline. If you look under some early Ford vans and some trucks, you will see they really moved the center carrier to one side. The only thing you need to do is to keep the engine crank centerline parallel with the rear pinion gear shaft both vertically and horizonally. Some people will recommend that you angle the pinion down a degree or so that the drive line is straightened out under load. Either way you don't want the angle of the pinion to go positive (up) in relation to the driveshaft. By running a little bit of offset you allow the u-joint trunions to get equally loaded and the needles to get equally lubricated. There are a number of online drive shaft companies that give you much more information then I have. Hope this helps you out.
RocknT,
The 9" Fords are a bit different when it comes to offset. Ford still used press on axle bearings with no C-Clip retainers and the left side was different from the right side. At 66" overall width I would assume that you plan on narrowing it. If you do then just center the bango in the car. It will look better and as you would be replacing axles anyway you can get them made to length. If you have any questions on narrowing a Ford then please let me know. I have built so many Ford housings that I sometimes act like a rearend. By The Way, the 9" is by far the strongest housing you can put under your car and that includes the famed DANA 60.
George
RocknT
Member
Thanks for the information George . I picked up this 8.8 out of a 4x4 Explorer
it is a locker 3.55 gears and already has the disk brake's all the line's and E cables and the drive shaft. I figure I could use it in my car as it is so light and really don't plan on making trip's down the 1/4 mile but maybe play with the rice burners once in a while . I really considered a rear end out of a T Bird but decided to tackle that some other time . I hope to have a good start on the swap next weekend if the weather holds.
it is a locker 3.55 gears and already has the disk brake's all the line's and E cables and the drive shaft. I figure I could use it in my car as it is so light and really don't plan on making trip's down the 1/4 mile but maybe play with the rice burners once in a while . I really considered a rear end out of a T Bird but decided to tackle that some other time . I hope to have a good start on the swap next weekend if the weather holds.
fluidfloyd
Active Member
RocknT,
Being it was the end of day shift at the shop I guess I misread your post. I now see that you did in fact pick up a 8.8" rear. The explorer rear disk brakes are really good units and I have put them on a number of 9" Fords. A friend of mine in Weatherford, Texas uses then on rock crawler Jeeps. You can buy them as bolt on kits from several sources, but of course this doesn't apply to you. You already got yours!
Where is Dumas?
George
Being it was the end of day shift at the shop I guess I misread your post. I now see that you did in fact pick up a 8.8" rear. The explorer rear disk brakes are really good units and I have put them on a number of 9" Fords. A friend of mine in Weatherford, Texas uses then on rock crawler Jeeps. You can buy them as bolt on kits from several sources, but of course this doesn't apply to you. You already got yours!
Where is Dumas?
George
HELLRAISER79
Member
Thomas, i wouldnt worry. Alot of cars have the driveshaft running at a slight angle horizontally to the rear. You NEED a slight angle horizontally or vertically or both to ensure that the rollers in the caps of the ujoints are actually doing something. Ive read that if the driveshaft is perfectly straight, the ujoints wont last as long.
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