I am slowly gathering parts in an attempt to build a budget friendly 1941 Ford pickup "g***er" style. The truck will have an SBC with approximately 350-375 hp and a TH400 transmission. It will be drag raced from time to time and driven like one would expect a hot rod with deep gears to be driven. The traditional "go to" rear ends have gotten so ridiculously expensive, I'm considering my other options. I have heard good things about the Ford 8.8 and I found one locally with 4.10 and posi. Is it up to the task without upgrading all the innards? Thanks in advance.
It should live. Driveline shock is what breaks things. Like dumping the clutch at 5 grand - the auto doesn't put that stress on the gears. You should be OK with a 28 spline one. If you want to go much over 400 horse you should look for a 31 spline.
4.10 and posi and disk brakes it's probably already a 31 spline and would live just fine. We have one in an off topic jeep that has 450hp and we use for street and rock crawling and it has been through hell with only 1 broken axle shaft C-clip knob. The disk brake caliper held it in place until I could change it...hundreds of miles later.
I'm putting about 600 hp through the one in my off topic car, running high tens, I'm not worried about it. At your power level you don't even need to weld the tubes to the center. Mine has stock Ford gears and limited slip and stock 31 spline (explorer) axles.
IMO, it will hold up fine, light weight truck, poor weight distribution, it will boil the tires off till you decide to hook it up. Tires usually are the first step, if you get it to really hook then the problems will start. You'll find the weak link continually until it's all legit HD race stuff, That rear end is plenty good, had that in my 32, 355, Dyno @ 375 and I ran 255 radials with a rebuilt TH350 higher stall with the better parts in as a stock rebuilt failed, 3:55 gear. My 29 Roadster had a 355, a little hotter than the 32, TH400, higher stall 9" 3: 55 gear, ran 295 radials, both cars had tire spin, controllable, hooked up good enough, plenty fast enough for a street rod. Note ! Speedy cost money, How fast do you want to go AND are you racing or cruisin, make your choice. Have Fun and Enjoy !
Unfortunately, I learned the cost of that 'finding the weak link' the hard way when I built my '56 Chevy. 529.7hp I broke stuff the first 3 summers it was on the road. Now, as long as I resist the urge to put slicks on it, it is doing fine.
What should I expect to pay for a rearend like that? Will these rearends still have a tag on them denoting the gear ratio like they did in the old days?
Less than a year ago, I went to a couple self pull junkyards in Tucson, there were half a dozen mid-late 90s explorers at each, I looked at tags till I found a 373 posi that looked decent. It was about 300 bucks all in, plus the labor to remove it. Getting the driveshaft loose from the flange was the toughest part, it has 4 11mm 12pt head bolts that are really tight, so I ended up knocking out the U joint and paying for the driveshaft flange instead of removing the bolts (the tools I brought didn't want to get them loose). Living in the rust belt as you do, ymmv.
I’d say $250 and yes from the factory there’s a tag with the ratio. The 2 door “sport” explorers nearly all had the 4.10 gears.
The 91-01 Explorer is the easiest way to get 31 splines. 95-01 have discs. 3.73 and 4.11 are common ratios for Explorers. 3.55 exists but are hard to find. There are tags on them with a ratio. I started my search with knowing the ratio code on the door tag and going from there. You probably know, but a common mod is you can get an extra p***enger side axle and shorten the drivers side 2 7/8" if width is an issue. In a pick-a-part you don't even have to pay extra....Note that those Explorers have a 1330 U-joint so you may want the whole driveshaft to shorten or you will probably want at least the flange Squirrel mentions (if you want a long one to cut down a 90s Crown Vic also has the right flange). Lots of earlier Ford stuff used a 1310 U-joint. There is of course the ****er S5-134X conversion joint, but I prefer 1 size if possible to make it easier to get parts.
Once you get inside the differential, good luck removing that little 8mm bolt that holds the diff pin in. Don't try to take it out before applying heat, then penetrant, then heat, then penetrant and finally a good quality 8mm socket! Still no guarantee you'll get it out without ******ing the head, but it's your best chance. They're great rear ends as long as you get past that point.
Yup, 1330 is fine for less than 400 or so hp. I bought an aftermarket flange for the driveshaft, that bolts to the 8.8 flange, but holds a 1350 Ujoint, because I like to make things a bit stronger than they need to be.
The pin is retained with loc***e. A little heat softens it up. Even a propane torch works, although an induction heater might reduce the fire risk.
Here's how tough a 8.8" Ford axle is. I built my Falcon g***er with a .040" over 454, Edelbrock aluminum heads, big cam, Weiand tunnel ram, twin Holleys, and a Super T10 4 speed and 8.8 Ford posi axle. At the first opportunity for another wrecking yard sale I went and pulled a 2nd 8.8 Ford axle for a spare since I planned to beat this car up at the drags. I made numerous 4,000 rpm clutch drops to launch the Falcon and never had a single issue with the 8.8" axle. When I later sold the Falcon and began building my '39 Chev g***er with a 430 HP SBC I dropped the spare 8.8" in it. Figured if that BBC and hard launches couldn't hurt the axle, then my SBC sure couldn't either.
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