I'm working on my 72 Maverick Grabber and ran into an issue with the bolt pattern for the bearing ends. The car came with a six cylinder and four lug bolt pattern. I work at a rear end shop and had a 9" built to replace the factory 8". I thought that the 8" rears have the same bearing end bolt pattern as the small bearing 9" rears. I cleaned the factory nine inch diameter drum brakes from the 8" rear and compared them to a small bearing 9" bearing end. The bolt pattern wasn't even close. The pattern was closer to that of 8.8 bearing ends. I went ahead and had billet 8.8 ends welded on the end of the new 9" housing. The plan was to clearance the backing plate holes to bolt onto the 8.8 ends, using the bearing to find center on the backing plate. I never measured the inside diameter of the backing plate, and when I went to slide the backing plate over the axle, the hole was too small to fit over the bearing. The axle bearings I am using with the 8.8 ends are the same dimensions as the 9" small bearing. My question is what ends did my 8" have on them to begin with that had a weird bearing end bolt pattern with such a small bearing? The welds on the ends look factory, so I would have a hard time believing that somebody swapped bearing ends and brakes on the car before I owned it.
Not all Maverick 8" are the same size. The 4 lug vs 5 lug cars definately have different bearings. Here is a classic old thread that covers the differences ...... http://www.mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=20444&highlight=bearing+diameter
Thanks Eric! I wish I would have paid more attention and asked that question before I had the rear end made with the smaller axle hang out.
the bolt pattern on the small 8 end is the same as the 8.8 end that mustangs used from 86-2004. the bearing on the weld on 8.8 ends are what big ford ends use.
Bryant, So are you saying that the 8.8's had different bolt patterns? The bearing end on my 9" housing uses the 8.8 bolt pattern shown in the attachment, and uses the same bearing as the small 9". The bolt pattern for the bearing ends on my 8" look very similar to the 8.8 bolt pattern shown in the attachment, but are actually slightly smaller. So are you saying that the bearing end bolt pattern on the 8.8 mustangs are different than the bolt pattern shown in the attachment? I appreciate the info, as I don't know much about the 8.8's. Ethan
Hey I found out today that the bolt pattern for the small bearing end on the 8" is similar to the 8.8 ends, but will not bolt up. The holes on the small 8" pattern are vertically the same distance as the 8.8 bolt pattern, but the width is what is different. The top two bolt holes and bottom two bolt holes on the 8.8 are actually 0.200" wider than the small 8" pattern.
