is this a early ('35-41) or late ('42-48) 40's era ford banjo rear end? I know the older ones are slightly wider. I just don't have a reference to go by. thanks
The shock mounts will fit any rearend, but this IS a 42-48 rearend as evidenced by the short radius rods, and the rear Panhard bar mount on the drivers side spring mount. The earlier rearends do not have Panhard bars as the sprngs are mounted in tension as they were since 1909. The 42-48 rears had rubber bushed spring shackles and the springs were not under tension to give a softer ride to compete with the dual spring more modern GM and Mopar cars.
measure the distance between the back side of the backing plate to the other side...'35-'41 is 51" and '42-'48 is 53"... btw, those backing plates are '39-'41.
I zoomed in on the picture and it looks like it has the little "spike" that points down from the outside edge of the spring hanger. That little spike is commonly considered 1941 only. However, I bought a rear once that had the spike, assuming it was 1941, but upon getting it home and measuring it found that it was the width of 1942-48. It also had the short radius rods. So, apparently Ford used up some of the "1941" ends on the new, wider 1942-48 axle housings. It's going to come down to the overall width or the length of the axle housings. In addition to the helpful information that has already been provided, this is a very helpful article: http://www.flatheadv8.org/fordrear.htm
I measured from backing plate to backing plate and it measured 51.00"-51.50". depending on if it was off the backing plate or the backing plates lip. but I thought the '42-'48 radius arms were the shorter ones versus the '35-'41?
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