Quick 8.8 narrowing?

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71scamp78

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Dropping it off at Moser Engineering today since I'm close to them . For this to work in an A body all need to tell them is to shorten the long side to same length as short side correct
 
Yep thats what I did. I bought 2 xploder 8.8 rears one was a 3.73 limited slip the other was open. I used the limited slip chunck and replaced all the bearings and clutches cut the long side down to the same length as the short side and used 2 short axles. Now I have 4 wheel disc brakes and a limited slip "posi" 3.73
 
dartfreak75 said:
Yep thats what I did. I bought 2 xploder 8.8 rears one was a 3.73 limited slip the other was open. I used the limited slip chunck and replaced all the bearings and clutches cut the long side down to the same length as the short side and used 2 short axles. Now I have 4 wheel disc brakes and a limited slip "posi" 3.73
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Ok that's what I thought. Thanks. I can buy a short axle for like 25 bucks at pick a part
 
What about modifying BOTH axles by making one with two long sides and the other with two short sides? Couldn't the wider axle be used in a 71-74 B body or an E body?
 
Yea thats what I was gonna do too but I end up getting the whole extra rear for 50 and I used alot of the parts off it. I used the calipers the cover some of the brackets so it was worth have 2 rears for me. Plus I gotta extra housing now if I ever need to shorten another one.
 
Kern Dog said:
What about modifying BOTH axles by making one with two long sides and the other with two short sides? Couldn't the wider axle be used in a 71-74 B body or an E body?
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Id say its probably wide enough as is to fit in a ebody the centersection will just not be centered under the car.
 
dartfreak75 said:
Yea thats what I was gonna do too but I end up getting the whole extra rear for 50 and I used alot of the parts off it. I used the calipers the cover some of the brackets so it was worth have 2 rears for me. Plus I gotta extra housing now if I ever need to shorten another one.
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You got steal for 50 bucks mine was 150 pick a part
 
I swapped another short axle for the longer one while still at the junkyard. No extra charge that way :)
 
They don’t at mine either, but I found a couple spare tire jacks laying around and used those to move the supports (two steel wheels welded together) off the rear to the frame rails.
 
71scamp78 said:
The long axle us 30.68 and short axle is 27.81 so you cut the housing down 2 15/16
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This sounds more like it. I haven’t shortened mine yet but I recall the excellent write up that I believe was from @moparmat2000 and the difference was around 2 7/8. So 2 15/16 is probably right on, especially if measured the actual axles. Thanks for doing that. I didn’t keep a long one to compare.
 
Please double check your lengths to be sure before cutting. The piece I cut out measures 2&3/4" however I cut inside of my marks on the axle. My discs measure 1/16" thick x 2 cuts. So the actual shortening I did was 2&7/8" when you add in the cut off disc thickness back in to the piece in the pic. When cutting, cut inside your marks. Remember your cutoff wheel thickness adds to the overall length. In my case 1/16" x 2 cuts.

20211004_133539.jpg
 
What year Explorer is used for this swap, anyway? What gear ratios do they come with from the Ford factory?
 
Part of my question was to apply to making the remains into a viable axle for a 3rd gen B body or an E body. Most E body cars already came with an 8 3/4" axle but sometimes people come across a partially stripped out project car.
Does this modified 8.8 result in a slightly narrower axle compared to a stock A body?
If so, would the "almost" 6 inch wider (two long sides) axle work for the bigger cars as I suggest?
 
I believe 95 to 2001 explorer or mercury mountaineer. 3.73 is pretty common. I think there is a 4.10 less common and some other numerically lower one maybe a 3.55
 
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