Ford 8.8

I haven't looked at the difference between Ujoints but it might be that there is a hybrid joint for the two, then you could get by with just shorting the shaft.
 
Yes, I plan on my 8.8 taking plenty of abuse so I bought the 1350 yoak and crush sleeve eliminator and replaced the axle ends with 9" axle ends. There are no C clip eliminator for the Explorer axles. At some point I'm looking to push 6 or 700 hp through it.
 
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And knowing you it will be in the more violent naturally aspirated form. Godspeed little 8.8. May your hardware hold fast and your wheels be hopless.
 
I have a 79 Aspen. I put an 8.8 in it. I didn't use an Explorer rear end though. I found that the 94-98 Mustang GT has nearly the same width rear axle. I bought mine out of a 97. I cut the coil spring perches off and welded leaf spring perched on. Its the same bold pattern and rear disc brakes. Pretty easy swap.

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The mustang 8.8 has 28 spine axles and the Explorer has 31. The mustang 8.8 can be upgraded to 31 but you need a new differential and aftermarket axles.
That's where the value of the Explorer axle assembly is, you get the strength of the 31splines for $150 or so.

I'm not a fan of a C clip axle so I had Ford 9" ends put on and used aftermarket axles. I also had the axle tubes welded to the differential.
 
jbuhr said:
I have a 79 Aspen. I put an 8.8 in it. I didn't use an Explorer rear end though. I found that the 94-98 Mustang GT has nearly the same width rear axle. I bought mine out of a 97. I cut the coil spring perches off and welded leaf spring perched on. Its the same bold pattern and rear disc brakes. Pretty easy swap.

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It doesnt seem like you had to shorten the axle or anything. And it looks like you had the ability to reuse the stock shock mounts. What are you doing about the pinion mount for the driveshaft?
 
jbuhr said:
I have a 79 Aspen. I put an 8.8 in it. I didn't use an Explorer rear end though. I found that the 94-98 Mustang GT has nearly the same width rear axle. I bought mine out of a 97. I cut the coil spring perches off and welded leaf spring perched on. Its the same bold pattern and rear disc brakes. Pretty easy swap.

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What spring perches did you use? Also what did you about the pinion yoke?
 
So many ideas are in my head. I’ve been trying to line up a 8.25” or 8.75” without spending $2k or traveling 500+ miles and haven’t had much success. This thread just gave me hope and ideas lol
 
I'll tell you right now, I just picked up a rear axle out of a sn95 gt from a u pull it for 90 bucks!. Plus it already has rear disc and comes with LSD. All i need now is leaf spring perches and a u joint adaptor. Which brings me to my next question, whats the u joint number for the 7.25" rear ends? Apparently by spicer terms.... I've found out that the mustang is a 1330, is ours a 1310 or something else?
 
The U-joints that came in all FMJ’s is 7260.
There are conversion U-joints for most common size joints. I’m not knowledgeable about what Ford uses, but an example: a 7260 to 1330 U-joints would be 11-14887 and can be obtained for $20-25 (US).

I would bet the propeller shaft length will be different and most likely will be shorter (for the larger differential housing). I've recorded the length differences for many Chrysler differentials – but not sure, here (again, due to inexperience with Ford). I would like to know what propeller shaft differences you end up having.

If you have more than a mild performing engine, you might want to consider a new propeller shaft with bigger joints. Chrysler 7290 U-joints or 1330 joints are a lot stronger than the 7260 joints are.
BudW
 
Opticon77 said:
I thought the track was 59" wide vs our 58.5"-59.5".
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Track (center of tire to center of tire) is usually the same thing as wheel mounting surface to wheel mounting surface on our older Chryslers.

FMJ Differentials
Mid-year 1980, Chrysler had a differential width change for all FMJ vehicles.
’76 to mid-year ‘80 the differential width was 58½” (1,486 mm) wide at the wheel mounting surface.
Mid-year ’80 to ’89, the differential width was 59½” (1,511 mm) wide.

I haven’t seen anyone have problems sticking the wider differential into an older FMJ – if you are using stock sized wheels. If you have custom or aftermarket wheels – when switching differential width might cause a problem.


The flange to flange measurement (backing plate to backing plate distance) is also important and is easy to get confused – sometimes.
BudW
 
In this case mounting surface to mounting surface would have to be the comparing method because of the disk breaks on the 8.8.
 
The reason the Explorer 8.8 is so popular is that it has 31 spline axles and deferential, this makes for larger diameter axles compared with the 28 spline that most others are.
 
I believe that some of the Shelby and the Cobra Mustang's ( drag cars ) came with 31 spline.
The nice thing about getting a Mustang axle assembly is everything is available to upgrade as needed and 28 spline could last just fine.
 
If you come across the Lincoln Versailles rear end snatch that up. It's a bit more work, but you get rear disks and there are upgrades for that setup widely available. They can still be found. I did my 88 that way, it was a bit more work but worth it. I am looking for another to do the same thing with my current '86 413 swap car. I think I can get a non-running Versailles for what a ring, pinion and bearing set would run me. I just don't remember the spring perch thing that I had to do, that part was trial and error.
 
I've heard the disk break parts are hard to source but I don't know for sure.
 
You can still get the parts, but not the same day. All of it has to be ordered.
 
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