Real deal or move along?

72bluNblu said

So measure the axle?

All of the swaps I’ve heard of use an A body 8 3/4 and I haven’t heard of any crazy backspaces being needed. Probably a little more than a 67+ A, but with stock spring locations the 67+ A’s typically use zero to low offset wheels. There are people that have done that swap on this board, I’m sure a search in the early A section would turn something up

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I do plan to take good measurements of my axle to compare to any other axle I end up with.

As far as searching the early A-body section, I somehow managed to completely overlook that sub-forum, that's my mistake. Using the Search Tool and targeting only that sub-forum produced at least a couple threads from people doing the 7-1/4 to 8-1/4 swap and the unanimous consensus is that any A-body 8-1/4 will bolt into any other a-body providing that the drive shaft is shortened (as mentioned here) and new spring plates and u-bolts are used to accommodate the larger axle tubes.

That ultimately leaves me with one major question: is $250 for a 45-year old 8-1/4 axle worth it (granted there are a lot of unknowns in this like bearing play, gear slop, etc.).

Or is my money better spent on buying a newer Ford 8.8 and having it cut down.

I appreciate your constructive and objective feedback!