Ford 8.8 should i buy?

Will the 8" axles, bearings, etc.... swap straight into a 9" housing if you managed to find one of them?

jbozzelle wrote:Will the 8" axles, bearings, etc.... swap straight into a 9" housing if you managed to find one of them?

Im not sure although i have an 8" lol

jbozzelle wrote:Will the 8" axles, bearings, etc.... swap straight into a 9" housing if you managed to find one of them?

Yup. The 8 and 9 inch 28 spline axles are the same.

Stay with the 9" call moser and get some axles 33 spline go racing.

BIGDOG466 wrote:Stay with the 9" call moser and get some axles 33 spline go racing.

Pretty sure nobody makes a locker for 33 spline though.

update on the rearend situtation i found a 72 mach 1 in a salvage yard with a 9" rearend. Ive heard these things arent that strong to begin with. Am i wrong?

Still have the 8.8 but if the price is right i may get the 9 since its a bolt on deal and save the 8.8 for another project/backup rear.

At the power levels you are talking about there is nothing in stock form that is going to handle it. A bone stock 9inch rear with the proper gears for your combo may or may not be as strong as the 8.8 It does have the advantage of not having the the c clips to worry about plus you can easily upgrade to a full boogie center section at any time. The actual housing from the 72 should be fine until you start doing banzai launches with slicks but you will break a lot of other stuff along the way before you get to that.

dkp

bosshoss wrote:At the power levels you are talking about there is nothing in stock form that is going to handle it. A bone stock 9inch rear with the proper gears for your combo may or may not be as strong as the 8.8 It does have the advantage of not having the the c clips to worry about plus you can easily upgrade to a full boogie center section at any time. The actual housing from the 72 should be fine until you start doing banzai launches with slicks but you will break a lot of other stuff along the way before you get to that.

dkp

Im just worried about the casing will i need to brace it up at all?
Im just worried about the case holding out. i have a strange alluminum 3rd member (atleast i think its the strange) aluminum 3rd member with 4.11 gears and a locker setup i picked up at a swap meet with the rollerized C4 i originally thought about using for only 400. figured they could come in handy someday.

If you are using the stock leaf spring setup and some kind of traction bar then you might think about reinforcing the spring pads but the big brace on the back is probably not required until you go to a bigger tire etc. You can only apply so much torque to the housing with the original wheel tubs in place. The tire becomes the limiting factor. If you have the facilitys to check the housing after and make sure it stays straight after the welding the back brace wouldnt hurt but not a neccessity in my opinion at least.

dkp

bosshoss wrote:If you are using the stock leaf spring setup and some kind of traction bar then you might think about reinforcing the spring pads but the big brace on the back is probably not required until you go to a bigger tire etc. You can only apply so much torque to the housing with the original wheel tubs in place. The tire becomes the limiting factor. If you have the facilitys to check the housing after and make sure it stays straight after the welding the back brace wouldnt hurt but not a neccessity in my opinion at least.

dkp

Im going to run caltracs on the back. cars been mini tubed and i dont plan on going any wider than the 11.5" under there now. may go to a 28" tall tire instead of the 26" i have now.

Ive got acess to a full shop that i can bring in my projects and work on them. (im working on welding and automotive degrees at the same time)

When you start dead hooking and pull the front wheels about 3" then and only then I would start to worry
about a 9" with 31 spline axles. I had a 4200lb Cyclone GT with caltracs 31 spl. nod. case only issue I had was with what Bosshoss spoke about the spring perches needed better gussets both sides (rolled them over), broke leave springs and the locker exploded. Went to a spool, had some spring made with extra front lower leave and tied them together (old mopar trick) The caltracs are hard on the front section of spring but they work. That car ran 11.80 with a 466 dove headed motor good ole car won 16k one year with it.

So i should probably start fabbing braces then. guy wanted 75 dollars for the rear
its in good shape the car had suffered a severe front end collision completely distroying the front half of the car.
pretty much had been picked clean minus the rear and drivshaft. so needless to say i go without lunch money this week

going to pull it apart this afternoon see what spline axles she has and maybe it will work with my 3rd member i have laying around

guess the 8.8 will hold out as a reserve rearend