I have a spoiled 8" rear in a 71 Maverick. need to change rear out thinking about a 9 inch. Can anyone tell me the distance between the flanges so I get the right rear. Also any thoughts on Posi, Limited Slip or open rear for street driving, not longing to drag race the car but want to have that option if in the futureI decide to. Thanks Joe
Well Bro...I cut down a 9" to about 52" bare housing, no axles or brakes. Got lucky, found a housing that was 1" off for 100 on CL and had it cut. Your best bet is to order one to spec. Id use a trac loc if your not gonna beat on it. Strange is good, I hear. Id use the search funtion and read some threads before spending any $$$$.
If swapping rear axles, going 1.5-2 inches wider overall will position the tires better in the wheelhouse, if you want to stuff it with tires and use period-correct wheels. Until I finally stumbled on a 3:55 gearset for my 8 inch (and it took YEARS ... low budget ), I was warming up to the idea of working over an Explorer 8.8. They have a lot going for them. They are super-common in the junkyards right now. Most are 3.55 or 3.73 gears. Most are traction-locs. Almost all of them are disc brake. I believe the axles are 31 spline. The bad news ... they are too wide and highly offset to the passenger side. That can be used to an advantage, though.... cut the driver side down so that you get the overall length you need. Leave the passenger side alone. A second passenger side axle might do the trick, but don't quote me there. Don't worry about getting it perfectly centered, cars are engineered with an inch of offset or so anyway, so that the u-joints work right. If run in a straight plane, the driveshaft would whip, they need some sideload. You will also need to weld on some new spring perches. ... too narrow to use with a Mav.
