I recently purchased a 1998 Ford Explorer rear end. Tags say 3l73 88 8F23 S613C R. From other posts this appears to be a 3:73 with limited slip. It has disc brakes and I've read it has 31 splines. I was going to upgrade my 8.5 10 bolt to posi and limited slip with an Eaton kit and then replace the drums with disc but this seemed like a good buy. I've noticed the rear end is slightly off centered. I've just removed the seat bar and the perches aren't in the correct places. What modifications will I have to make to get this to work? Oh yea. I'll be rebuilding a 454 with turbo 400. Plan on 500hp. Weekend driver. Just finished the front end rebuild. 1978 Camaro front clip.
Ford 8.8 rear end in 1956 Chevy Truck?
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- 1956 truck 8.8 chevy truck
elias1693
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I recently purchased a 1998 Ford Explorer rear end. Tags say 3l73 88 8F23 S613C R. From other posts this appears to be a 3:73 with limited slip. It has disc brakes and I've read it has 31 splines. I was going to upgrade my 8.5 10 bolt to posi and limited slip with an Eaton kit and then replace the drums with disc but this seemed like a good buy. I've noticed the rear end is slightly off centered. I've just removed the seat bar and the perches aren't in the correct places. What modifications will I have to make to get this to work? Oh yea. I'll be rebuilding a 454 with turbo 400. Plan on 500hp. Weekend driver. Just finished the front end rebuild. 1978 Camaro front clip.
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675 Posts
I have done 2 of the 8.8s from an explorer. I shortened the long side I believe 2 7/8 inches and used a right axle (shorter of the 2) on the left side. That pretty well centers up the pinion. I cut the pads off and relocated them to mate up with my springs. I used the factory explorer e-brake cables and used a lokar cable to attach to the brake handle. I also used a lever between the front and back cables to add some leverage. Otherwise the ebrake is very hard to set. You can get an idea about how the lever works at the A.M.E. site under the build on their blue and white 55.
You don't necessarily need to center the pinion, if the rear end length is a good fit as is, and if there are no interferences. I don't suppose there are any interferences in truck that would necessitate centering a pinion as there might be in a given car (e.g, floor pan and shaft tunnel clearance issues).
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751 Posts
these rear ends are right at about 60 inches wide.
Really strong. I centered mine by cutting the axle housing 3 inches shorter on one side thn the other and swapping them out side to side. Was pretty straight forward. Spent about 400.00 total for the rear end and new brake components. Have not figured out the ebrake yet, and the ring and pinion sing a little so I will likely replace those at some point. I am happy with the rear, and was my first mod of this type. Oh, I also had the axle flanges drilled to a chevy bolt pattern
Really strong. I centered mine by cutting the axle housing 3 inches shorter on one side thn the other and swapping them out side to side. Was pretty straight forward. Spent about 400.00 total for the rear end and new brake components. Have not figured out the ebrake yet, and the ring and pinion sing a little so I will likely replace those at some point. I am happy with the rear, and was my first mod of this type. Oh, I also had the axle flanges drilled to a chevy bolt pattern
Thanks. I read another post that mentioned that the offset is 2 3/16" and may not b a problem because it falls within normal deflection for u joint. I'm going to have the rear leafs rearched and put in the rear end as is. Has anyone kept the sway bar? Where did u mount it?
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919 Posts
This is exactly what I did with mine. It's in my 57, and works great. You cant beat the price either.
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