so I'm entering the world of real horsepower (I hope anyway) and I decided I didn't want to risk the banjo, so I'm looking for a rear end. I've got a lead on a 70's Lincoln 9" (sorry if that's too vague), that's all I know about it, I'll probably go look at it this weekend, is it worth anything? anybody know the width? It would be for my model A project.. Thanks, Nate
I'm not sure exactly, but that one is probably 60 inches wide backing plate to backing plate. The narrower 9 inchers, although harder to find are 57-9 Ford car, wagon, ranchero, Ford truck 58-60, Mustang Cougar, etc, 68-70, Early Bronco. they are 54-56 inches, if I remember correctly. The truck and Bronco ones are big Ford Pattern, the others are car pattern. The Lincoln one isnt junk, maybe too wide for an A. I am going through the same search for mine. An 8 inch rear out of a Mustang, Maverick or granada should be adequate for small block applications, but posis and gears are harder to get. If its cheap grab it up. Someone can use it down the road..
lincoln versailles is the narrow disc brake equipped rear end, it has leaf spring mounts. the 'other' lincoln rear w/disc brakes is actually a 9 1/4(?), and has a four link and coil set-up. avoid that one...
Most of the Lincoln rears (except the Versailles) are very wide - 60+ inches is about right. Many also have an odd bolt pattern - 5 on 5" & may come with disk brakes. May/may-not be a 9-3/8" rear, but even if it is, you can pop a 9" pumpkin in there no problem. Which you'd want to do anyway because it would likely have a 2.75:1 open rear! At the end of the day, may be too much work for a Model-A project. If you're looking for a 5x5.5" bolt pattern, the early Bronco is hard to beat...pretty narrow & usually good gears (3.50:1 most common ratio). How much is "...the world of real horspower..."?? Could you get away with a smaller, lighter rear like an 8"? What bolt pattern do you want to run?
thanks for all the responses, I'm ditching using the 226 flathead 6 for a 241 hemi, and eventually I'd like to squeeze out as much power as possible. I'm going to look at this rear end, but I think I'll explore the bronco rear end too.
N8inks;here's another option for ya considering the Linc rear end is not THE good 9" 95-2001 Ford Explorer's came with 8.8 bulb,31 spline axles, disc brakes with E/brake calipers..it's only 59" wide but the cool part is that it's an offset pumpkin...soooo..that means you can take the long axle cut it down the 3" and put another of the other side in !!BADABING...56"dual disc and plenty tuff!!! Theres an outfit on EGAY that sells them brand new...for like $500.oo beans !! Hope that helps confuse things
When you said Hemi, I thought you meant Hemi. It's all clear now, you mean a little Red Ram Hemi! Hell, an 8" will take anything that 241 RRH will put out - they barely broke 150HP stock... Seriously.
no ernie, not everyone can have a big ass chrysler... but my little red ram will be quite respectable I think seriously.
Aw, c'mon! Didn't I put enough smilies in there for ya? I think the little Red Ram's are cool & underrated & I really like 'em! But I'll stand by the statement that you don't need a 9". I think an 8" would be plenty. That's what the "seriously" was meant for...not dissing your engine. What style are you going for? You might be able to use something more "traditional" than a 9" - '57 Chevy perhaps? There's a few options open to you - if you were running a blown 392, I might tell you a big Olds or 9" is the right rear for ya.
What kind of A is your project? An A sedan can get away with about a 61 inch wide rear end at most. Maybe a bit more if you are gonna channell the shit out of it and have the tires clear up by the windows. An A coupe needs to be a bit skinnier...58 at the widest. Unless you are gonna channell the shit out of it.... The ONLY way to measure a rear end is wheel mounting flange to wheel mounting flange. Backing plate to backing plate will fuck you cause of all the diffrent depths of backing plates and axle bearing to flange lengths. Really, though..flaternie was right. An 8in Ford can handle a pretty damn strong Hemi. If your Hemi makes say, 450 foot#s of torque and you run slicks on a 4000 rpm launch, you will probally break an axle before too long. The 8in ring gear will probally last lots longer. 8in Fords look pretty cool lookin' and are cheap. And narrow. The 8in I put under my shoebox was out of a 4 door Maverick. (5 lug. 3.00:1 gear. 57in wide.) I paid 45 bucks for it and it had all new brakes and hardware. Tell me more, -Abone.
no sweat ernie, just playing around um.... . so maybe an 8".. ok, that opens up some options.. besides a mav, what other cars would have that rear? abone, It's a pickup, and I want to keep the wheels somewhat close to the bed (no fenders)... but I'm thinking the wheels will be fairly wide, so maybe I could make up a few inches in backspacing??? I don't know really. I'll shop around and see what I come up with.
Hey N8inks where you at in McClouth ? I sold a 29 sport coupe to a Ken Willitts up by there,know him? Anyway he has a shitlot of parts [ Junkyard ? ] up there & he might be able to help you out.I havent talked to him for a couple months ,but he`s building the coupe 'old scool' flattie-merc trans ,channeled ,you know.Hell of a nice guy.I can find his number if you need it.Give me a holler if you need anything, got alot of contacts here in Topeka.
V8 Maverick is your best shot at decent gears & maybe even a limited slip... But they came in lots of cars - Some Mustangs, Granadas, Monarchs, Cougar, Fairlane, etc. even Mustang IIs - your standard mid-size/intermediate cars from mid-late '60s up into late-'70s/early-'80s - for the grocery getters (Granada/Monarch/etc) look for V8 applications - for the other cars, look for small V8 cars. The V8 Maverick is the narrowest at about 56.5" or so (wheel mounting flange-flange), but the V8 Mustang II is close at 57"
When looking at Lincoln rear ends, make sure it's a true 9", not a 9 1/4" I got fooled by that once. Posi's and gears for the 9 1/4" are spendy and hard to come by. On the plus side, a 9" pumpkin will fit into a 9" housing, and the axles fit, if you have the right spline count.
The 9-3/8" rear can be identified by the top horizontal strengthening rib on the pumpkin ending in a turn down. These rears in the Lincolns & LTDs often have a 5 on 5" bolt pattern too. A 9" pumpkin will fit in a 9-3/8" housing - which will ususally be 28-spline, so the axles fit too - if you want the odd bolt pattern... Typically, however, these big Lincoln & LTD rears would be far too wide for your Model-A...61-63" wide or so...
One trick before you go shopping for a rearend, get the tires/wheels you want to run and set them next to the bed with the right amount of clearance. Then measure between the wheels, where they would sit on the brake drums, and there is the magic number for how wide the rearend needs to be. kind of obvious, but a lot of guys never figure this out and wind up having to search for funky offset wheels when they buy whatever rearend happens along, instead of the one they need. For that truck you could get away with several different types of rearends, I'd think the older the better (for appearance). maybe 55-57 chevy, 8-3/4" mopar and 50s olds/poncho would be contenders?
i have one of those layin over at my parent's place. not sure what, if anything, i'm going to do with it. had it for years. suppose to be a good rear and very sought after at one time.
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