Hi, I know this sounds anal but I am looking for a non billet end for my early ford axle tubes. They sell ends for a Ford 9" for big bearing torino which I believe will work but I would prefer to not get a billet version for my hot rod. http://www.quickperformance.com/9-Ford-Housing-Ends-Big-Bearing-New-Style-Torino-38_p_20356.html Any leads?
So cut them off of a 9 inch axle. You put them in a lath and turn a lip on the edge to weld to the housing. The attached on my axles are the prefab types.
What are you worried about the bearing housing when your going to weld fabed brackets on for spring and bones of some kind? It kind of all goes together don't it? The Wizzard
The old trick was early f1 or 49-51 ford/merc axles, ends, ect. It required some machining to get the splined gears to fit in the diff inplace of the early ford ones, but looks pretty straight forward Or you could do like some of the old racers did and convert to 3/4 ton axles+ends
So what are the best axle tubes the truck tubes or standard early tubes? If the Ford truck tubes why?
Almost all the ones I mentioned are the same bolt pattern and adaptable, the benefit over early ford is they don't use ford tapered axles, I've read multiple era articals regarding how to do it, unfortunately I didn't copy them. The 3/4 ton mentioned is strictly an era racing thing for dirt/strip stuff done for it's sheer bulletproofness and you are limited to 8 lug or wide 5 and it is heavy as hell
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This is a little late for you and I've posted it here before with little or no response. I hate trying to duplicate locating mounts to an exact location. I also don't like the look of hand fabbed mounts on Old School builds when you don't need them. Most of us Old Guys didn't even have a welder when we did our first builds. I like up grades as long as they are not in your face. Here is my way of late axles and brakes without redoing all the mounts and staying closed drive and No custom axles. You also will have that rough forged look your looking for. The Wizzard
I've seen it done on the 3/4 ton stuff, and I'd assume it could be applied to more standard stuff, where guys bolt the axle ends on with the backing plate bolts, ofcourse they machine a step on the snout to center it on the ford ends.
Here are few options using both the billet ends (painted) and the Ford 9" ends. I like the Ford ends but they will cost you more money than the $100 billet ends.
I try to locate a used early 9" rear housing with big bearings and 1/2'' holes. Sometimes salvage yards have scrap rear ends you can buy for $50 bucks. You can use any you can locate. Be careful when cutting off the ends as they extend into the housing. You can reach in a see where they end. I cut them off and remove the ends in a lathe as shown above.