40 Ford Banjo rears I love the looks of the 40ish Ford rears, but know little about them. Can someone school me a bit? Are they closed or open drive? What rear ratios were available? Wide five or something else? How hard are they to narrow? Who makes axles for them? What should I expect to pay for one in decent stock condition?
Closed drive line, but there are kits to make them open 4:11 and Around 3:70 are some stock ratios Some are wide five others are five on five and a half Can be narrowed Don’t know $100 to $250 Limited amount of horsepower, not the strongest rear end out there. Bones
Car rears are closed drive. Some pickups are open drive. Avoid 39-40 Mercs, drive shaft and pinion are one piece. Common ratios run from 3:54, 3:78, 4:11, 4:44. 36 thru 39 rears are wide five, others are 5 on 5-1/2" bolt circle They can be narrowed, there are several methods out there. If you want stock, tapered axles, I don't know of any aftermarket ones out there. Hot Rod Works makes conversions to put slip-in axles in a banjo housing. "Decent Condition" is very subjective. Like any rear, check ring/pinion condition, housing cracks/modifications. Look for wear on the bottom side of each bearing surface on the housing ends. They can be repaired if needed, but it adds to the cost. Check the condition carefully of the axles, the tapered end should be smooth, without galling or cracks, the keyway should be very clean, without nicks or chips, and the threads should be clean and without any signs of damage. Good luck. I have over 100,000 miles on the banjo rear in my '40 coupe, with minimum problems.
Late 40's pickups had open drive and parallel springs. By "wide five" to you mean 5.5" or really wide? As Fat said, the really wide was 36-39, but only the 39 drums will work with hydraulic brakes. Don't plan on narrowing one. A lot more complex than a regular slide-in-axle rearend. Nobody "makes" axles for them. But Ford made millions of these rearends, so there are a lot out there. If you don't get in a hurry you can find a nice one for $100 at a swap meet. If you need one tomorrow you will be at the mercy of the seller. Patience and persistence.
Pickup banjos are open driveline, get one of those. Stuck with probably a 4:11 or lower ratio but get a 200R4 OD tranny and that will fix that. For my Mysterion project I of course had to narrow it severely so while doing that I grafted late model Ford 9" axles and bearings. Required boring out the ring gear and differential housing to accept the bigger bossed 9" side gears, grinding down the crown of the stock early spider gears (same pitch for both, but the spiders just have taller crowns) grinding the diameter of the 9" side gears and boring the early axle ends to accept 9" seal, finally bolting on after-market axle bearing adaptors. In fact if you have to narrow the rear anyway, just graft on 9" axle ends and use all modern brakes, axles etc. Lots of busy work but not that bad. You also need these bearing adaptors to use early backing plates/brakes. Easier way is just graft on 9" axle ends, use late model axles, backing plates, brakes.
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