I know that a 9" Ford, Olds,Dana 60 etc... are great but what about the strength of any newer differentials? I seen a mid 90's mustang rearend that looked promising. Anybody running anything newer? I know traditional is king but just asking?
8.8 fords are good explorer is a good one 31 spline axles and a lot of them have posi and 2 short axles it will come out to about 56"and disc brakes
lol.. I was sitting in traffic today behind a full size Nissan SUV, pretty decent looking aluminum center section IRS unit on that thing. Wondered how easy it would be to transplant that into a rod.
Oh, never mind, I was thinking about women....but seriously, what is under these newer Chev Colorados OR Dodge Dakotas???
mid size,their coil spring type...if ya need leaf spring pads you can em from many mail order offroad companies or if you have a place that builds 4X4's,,it's a very popular swap for alot of jeeps,theres a discussion here awhile back which vin/ID tag to look for --posi/spline count etc:
The 8.8 Ford is pretty stout as has already been mentioned. I ran a little 10 bolt chevy from an S-10 in a lighter (2800 lb) 11 second car for a year. It took the abuse of dailey driving ( 24 miles one way to work) and weekend racing for about a year. We pulled it down for inspection the bearings were about gone and the ring was chipped but it had about 130,000 miles on it beforwe we used it and could have already been that way. We replaced the bearings etc. Same ring and pinion, same axles and housing. It is now in a 454 powered '84 Cutless (yea I know OT car) sees dailey use and occaisional grudge nite. It has been in that car since '98. I guess they hold up OK. The same differential comes in the pre millenium Trans Ams and Cameros.
The 8.8 Ford is almost a direct copy of the Chevy 12 bolt and is just as strong. They are cheap and plentiful in salvage yards. The explorer axle tubes are 3 1/4" so get the U bolts and plates with it.
Jeez, I hate to say it, but those damn Toyota Tundra rear ends have a 9.5 inch ring gear, normally a fairly decent ratio in the high 3.X area, and most have limited slip differentials.
Not hardly. You use 2 short axles and cut one side down. It puts your pinion off center so if centered pinion is a must you don't want to do it that way. The S-10 2WD rear is 54.25 flange to flange. It doesn't look big and burley but it is a shoe in for most narrow rods.
The 8.8" Explorer rear is a sturdy item....the 2wd version is 3:55,...but I believe other ratios are readily available. I like the idea that it comes with discs, AND integral parking brakes,...which can use either factory or aftermarket cable kits (Lokar, and others) 4TTRUK
I'll throw my vote in for the 8.8 Ford also. Running one now under my unibody, not that my 351m anchor puts out gobs of hp but its holding up well. I know a few guys running explorer 8.8s under tri5 chevys with good results.
explorer rears are 59 1/2" , 12 bolt chevy to 69? are 61" and 70 up are 62" http://www.teufert.net/other/rear end dimensions.htm i have a 97 i might install in my c-10 but i need 1 1/4" spacers from ford 4 1/2" to chevt 6 bolt anybody know where i can get these or that can turn em out for me ?
I had a explorer rear under my ihc truck and narrowed one for the 62 falcon of my sons well as for fuel injection quite a few early hot rodders used vette fuel injection!
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