Ford 8.8" Rear... Should I do it?

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It has been a while since I did anything with my car and the 8.8 rear. I just picked a set of Ford Racing Carbon Fiber clutches through summit, a set of differential carrier bearings, and wheel bearings.
I dropped the rear off at my welders (friends shop) and he just descaled the rust while I was there. I left, and he is in the process of getting ready to cut the long side down and is putting a slug inside to make it straight. Everything is being tigged up, along with the tubes to the housing.

Edit: went back over and took some pics:
 

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fishy68 said:
That's surprising to hear it's that narrow. They sure look a lot wider than a Ranger and a Ranger 8.8 rear is nearly exactly the same width of an A-body rearend. 1.31" is pretty good.
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Ranger axles & exploder axles are the same minus the leaf spring perches. They share many similar parts.
 
Here is some more pics of the tig welding:
 

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Here is how we had it locked in place with C-Channel on the bottom:
 

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Yeah like said those Explorers have 31 spline axles. The 31 spline differentials have a bigger cross shaft then the 28 spline diffs. Those are some really strong rears. And they are all over the yards. A pick and pull not far from me its $69 any complete rear, you gotta pull it, but brakes are extra. But still dirt cheap and the Explorer and Ranger 8,8 rears are easy to find. Mustang rears those are always gone.
 
jrlegacy23 said:
Ya, right. Go to your local junk yard and look around, its amazing what you may find. What is nice about the Ford Exploder is there is a tag on the drivers door that has an axle code. Which tells you if it is limited slip and the gear ratio. They are as follows:
:director:
43 Open 3.08
41 Open 3.27
42 Open 4.10
46 Open 3.73
45 Open 3.55
D4 Limited Slip 3.73
D2 Limited Slip 4.10
L73 Limited Slip 3.73
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Thanks for this i'm gonna go hunting!
 
Went over tonight and applied some chassis saver paint (carquest's version of POR-15). I then put the Solid diff cover on:
 

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My 8.8" has served me well for many years:thumbup:

pumpkin_rrflex.jpg
 
Here is another pic. You can see how subtle the tig welding is between the tube and the center section:
 

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I've read somewhere that there is another way to do it. Buy 2 rear ends. Remove the long tube annd axle and install the short tube and axle so both short tubes are on the same assembly. I doubt anyone can say which way is best or less expensive.
 
You can, but you have to drill the plug welds and press the tubes out and press the tubes in. As that is the ideal/correct way, we did not have the means to do this. I was worried about the weld being a weak point, but he assured me that with the tig weld, this should not be the weak point of the axle by any means.
 
Summit Racing delivery came today. I got the new E-Brake shoes and a set of Carbon Fiber differential clutches.
 
nice work, but why did you paint it before putting the spring plates on? so you have to paint it again partially....just sayin.

BTW, did exactly the same....like it!

Michael
 
I don't have a garage built at my new place yet and I have to put the rear in my shed and will not be going into the car for another 2-3 weeks. I did not want it to re rust, so I painted it up now. I will remove the paint where the perches go on install, reweld the perches in and put the final coat on everything.
I was wondering if anyone was gonna notice that, good eye.
 
Here are the carbon fiber clutches I bought for the rear:
 

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i have a 8.75, but my buddy has a scamp with a 8.8, and a trickflow stamped differential cover, kind of neat looking on there and makes people scratch their heads...heck even the new challenger drag pack has a powerglide and a 9 inch ford.
 
jrlegacy23 said:
You can, but you have to drill the plug welds and press the tubes out and press the tubes in. As that is the ideal/correct way, we did not have the means to do this. I was worried about the weld being a weak point, but he assured me that with the tig weld, this should not be the weak point of the axle by any means.
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Well, I don't see that the housing ends are symmetrical front to back, so pressing a short-side axle tube on the long side of the housing will make the brake caliper mount backwards. Definitely feel like cutting the tube to length is the only real solution here, regardless of where you cut the length (housing end or middle of the tube).

I have a mega ultra jones to set up a swifty 3.73 traclok/disc 8.8 to replace the 2.76/open/drum fail-7.25 in my Dart but while there's been a lot of talk about how to get around the emergency brake cable issue, I haven't seen any pics of solutions yet, and most of the conversions are still in the on-jackstands-lookin-neat stage versus the I took it to the grocery store today stage.

Anybody have pictures/parts lists of their e-brake cables? That's really the only thing keeping me from looting the hell out of the ferd truck place around the corner for their sweet posi guts.
 
I had read a post somewhere (can not find it now), that using the ford E-brake cables and cutting them to length and installing the ball from a mopar on the end works. I will see if I can find it again.

What some are also doing for the tubes, is pressing out the long side, cutting it to length and milling the end to fit and press it back into the housing. For most applications, in my opinion, that is a lot of un-needed work that is not having a legitamte pay-off in strength
 
I would have just added the ends to the axle tubes... AFTER you welded the perches and anything else on..... When welding to tubes they move and now that you made your modification from the middle the ends are on it and now you have to add more items and weld on that tube again...

I have fixed many a rear from people doing that and have to cut the ends and re-align the ends to they aren't off from distortion, in fact i just did another yesterday and this car was so off i told him he should see 2 tenths at the very least.

Always do the ends last and on a jig not off the tube, as the tube inner may not be on the same diameter the inside dimension is and that will put the bearing off a degree or more from the carrier.

.
 
jarvitron said:
Well, I don't see that the housing ends are symmetrical front to back, so pressing a short-side axle tube on the long side of the housing will make the brake caliper mount backwards. Definitely feel like cutting the tube to length is the only real solution here, regardless of where you cut the length (housing end or middle of the tube).

I have a mega ultra jones to set up a swifty 3.73 traclok/disc 8.8 to replace the 2.76/open/drum fail-7.25 in my Dart but while there's been a lot of talk about how to get around the emergency brake cable issue, I haven't seen any pics of solutions yet, and most of the conversions are still in the on-jackstands-lookin-neat stage versus the I took it to the grocery store today stage.

Anybody have pictures/parts lists of their e-brake cables? That's really the only thing keeping me from looting the hell out of the ferd truck place around the corner for their sweet posi guts.
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*My 8.8 has drum brakes*
I have completed the 8.8 swap in my 72 dart, and I used the factory dart e brake cables. The hole where the cable goes into the backing plates was a little smaller on the 8.8 so I took a die grinder with a carbide cutting tip and carefully enlarged the holes and the factory mopar cables fit and function great for me. I dont know how it will work for disc brake cars
 
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