Hey guys. Been a while since my intro and any post of anything resembling useful info. patient: 53 Stude. Problem: stock (weak) Rear end has welded spiders. Wanna replace with a ford 9". Anyone know of an application where the spring and/or overall width is close to this? thanks for the help.
Granada is about 57.5 inch, Maverick is about 56. Both are leaf springs, no idea of exact spring pad distance. However, cutting off the old spring pads and welding new ones on is easy. Be sure the new rearend has the same pinion angle as the old one. Granada and Maverick are both 8-inch Ford rears with leaf springs and 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern. Only 9-inch that is narrow enough would be a 57-59 Ford car, or very rare Mustang 9-inch from 65-66. Early Bronco (66-77) is right width as well, but 5 on 5.5 pattern, and getting more expensive to find.
I helped a friend put a 57 Ford station wagon (big bearing) 9 inch under his 53 Studebaker........in the early 70's. As I recall, it went under the Stude with no cutting or welding. It bolted in. The only problem I remember was that the pinion angle was different. We got some Lakewood angle shims and corrected that...... When on and found some 65 Galaxie backing plates and brake drums for it. The benefit was bigger brakes and self adjusters.
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