Rear diff question

Lastchanceauto13 said
I forgot to mention he also gave me a-body spring relocation brackets

A full 3" relocation? That's a lot of work to do right, and if you're not going to mini-tub the car there isn't any point in doing it. You can get the same tire clearance with a bolt in 1/2" spring offset hangers/shackles. Doing the 3" relocation and mini-tub will be a lot of welding. If that's what you want to do great, but I'm just pointing out that doing a full 3" spring relocation and mini-tub is a lot more involved than just moving the perches and bolting in an axle.

RustyRatRod said
Much like the Mopar 8 1/4, the Ford 8" is a lot stronger than people give it credit for. But, axle availability is not good, unless you go custom like Moser, Strange or Currie. Keep in mind it has three pinion bearings, much the same as a 9" and that gives it some strength.

Lastly, if you find the ribbed center section, it is very strong. I have one in the 8" housing under my Mercury Bobcat.

Here is the heavy duty extra ribbed 8" center section. A lot of people don't even realize Ford ever made one, but they did.

View attachment 1715043229

Yeah I would avoid the 8" not because of strength, but because of parts. And yeah, if it is 4" shorter it wouldn't work well with the stock spring locations. And if I was going to run a 3" relocation and mini-tubs to clear some wide sticky tires I wouldn't want the 8" because you'd probably want better axles to do that, and those would need to be custom, so, more expenses.

"Free" always sounds great, but if it takes twice much work to use the "free" part it might still not be worth it.