I have probably a stupid question, but some friends and I were discussing,When did the Ford 9” rearend become a common (popular) choice for guys to put in there hotrods??? Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Who can say for sure about hot rods in general, but I'm betting it wasn't until the Ford nodular iron cases started showing up. The 57-64 Olds/Pontiac rears were the choice of most drag racers before the nine inch got popular.
It was always a viable choice beginning with it's introduction, but gained it's nearly overwhelming popularity in the late '60s for a variety of reasons. One was when the supply of late '50s/early '60s Olds/Pontiac rears started to dry up after GM went with their 'corporate' axles. Another was it's universal adoption by NASCAR for all makes, which made for a large enough market that ratio selections became nearly unlimited. The drag racers noticed what NASCAR was doing, and the street guys followed suit. And while GM 12-bolts and Dana 60s have their adherents, the ability to change ratios by simply swapping a pumpkin was more than enough to let users overlook it's shortcomings. And those were addressed in the aftermarket to a large extent. The 9" was a victim of fuel economy standards. With it's low pinion angle, it took measurably more power to spin it.
So if your wanting to build a Hotrod from a time period, what would be considered a safe era if your using a 9” Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I'd say any 'period' after 1957. 'Back in the day', rear axle choice many times was whatever was at hand that would fit so you used to see a much larger variety. The drag racers liked the Olds/Pontiac rears, but the guys building street cars weren't that picky.
Probably not period correct but the Ford Bronco 66 - 77 had a 9" rear with a bolt pattern to match the early Ford wheels ( 5 x 5 1/2" ) and the width of the Bronco is 58 inches which is perfect for most early Fords. HRP
Look under '57-60 Ford 1/2T trucks also. Although finding either the early truck or Bronco rears these days may be an exercise in futility. If you do find one, it'll probably have a 4.11 or 3.89 ratio in it though...
I didn't see the wide spread usage until the aftermarket started making better parts for it. In the 80's when catalog cars were becoming common, the 9" was the rear end of choice. Me being an ex- drag racer, until the strong parts were made, it wasn't the rear of choice. In the 60's and early 70's, I saw people use whatever they had. They went to the junk yard and got what they could afford or what was available. Nobody had new rear ends then.
I had a shortened Olds rear I kick myself for selling but it was to a guy that was building a vintage gasser out of Portland.
Back in the 60s, I used Olds or Buick in all my swaps. I have had the Cameo for 51 years, and the first swap in this truck, was the small block and a 57 Posi. I blew it up after swapping to the BB Chev in 71, and switched to a Eaton 4.57:1, then to a Dana, and now I am running a 12 bolt. I will be swapping to a 9 inch, simply because I have one and want to narrow the rear end slightly, and convert to the Eaton gear set. I found the best source for the two 9 inch rear ends I bought, were the 9 3/8 inch rear ends out of the mid 70s big Fords. The 9 inch pumpkin fits with no modification, but they do require narrowing and a little extra cleaning. I haven't taken out a rear end since the 57 (twice) in 71. Bob
That’s what’s in my 32 , fit like Henry made it that was and matched the F100 front brakes perfectly . They are getting really tuff to locate one in my neck of the woods anymore . I paid 50.00 for mine 3.50 gears and equalock . I sold the equalock for 300.00 and the rest is history .
In my opinion the olds ,pontiac were used when I was just getting into cars. As they ran out people started useing Dana 60 or some heavy duty truck stuff. When Ford was putting out thousands of 9 inchers and the ratios were plentiful they gained a big following . But remember most early prostocks ran a dana 60 and some even a Mopar 4 speed. I do not remember anyone useing 9 inch in hot rods till the mid 70s.I could be wrong.
With a rear end built for 4500 pound trucks and 35-4000 pound cars and you are putting it in a 2500 pound 32 Ford and your telling me 2" X 11" shoes are too small? What the hell are you smokin' cause I want some.
I'd have to say the guys petty well hit it on the nose. The Olds and Pontiac drop out rear ends were the hot lick for quite a while but first thing you had to do was swap out the ring and pinoion. When guys started running the Ford nine inch you could pick up a car rear and snag a third member out of an F100 with 4.11 gears for what amounted to pocket money and be ready to go in with a 3rd member swap in the driveway or in a lot of cases run 3.0 on the road to the track if it was quite a ways away, swap in the "race gears" at the track and make your passes and swap back and head home. Pretty much what Squirrel did a couple of years ago during drag week before he got the overdrive for the car. Currie got into the 9 inch business cutting down rear axles for those Taylor Dunn electric trucks you used to and probably still do see in factories all over the place. There is a narrowed nine inch under most all of the older ones. Their business went from there when someone figured out that they could also narrow a nine inch for a hot rod.
The rather large gear ratio selection the aftermarket has for the Ford 9" also increases it's popularity.
The 9” didn’t dominate until well into the 1970s. Tri five Chevy rear ends were used to some extent in the late fifties and sixties, but the Olds and Pontiac rears were common in high hp application. Popular Hot Rodding Magazine, for example, used one in their Project X 57 Chevy with a 292 SBC in the late sixties and early seventies. Chevy 12 bolts were common, despite being inferior to the 9”. The Ford 9” came into common use later, when the dreaded street rod became popular, in the late seventies, and eventually became the iconic muscle car rear end of choice.
I learned to like the nine inch Ford rear end early on. The many different versions of this rear end made hunting the rarer versions fun in junk yards. Especially like finding the n cases. Hunted for years in local salvage yards. Now have a van full of n case nine inches. Also scored a Dana 60 1/2 ton rear end in my searches. They didn’t give the me the nickname “Boneyard” for nothing. Bones
I would say 1965 when the Olds/Pont. rear went out of existents and the Ford where much cheaper partswise. I only use Olds/Pont. or 12 bolt GM. Pat
I have honestly never personally seen a 9” in a actual survivor hotrod , and don’t understand why 55-57 Chevy tears were almost always in one converted to open drive early olds and even some shoebox rears I alway found that odd
Takes more power to spin a 9" than a 12 bolt although since they didn't start building 12 bolts until 65 probably not on topic here...I have 9" s in two of my cars The others not so much. I remember a certain hemi super stock barracuda back in the day that ran a 12 bolt rear instead of a Dana , a very winning car ...think the guy specializes in car covers now...
Heh, one place I worked at many years ago had a bunch of 4 wheel elec. golf carts & 3 wheel elec. utility carts in use on site. Most of them had the smaller Ford 8" rear under them. The 8" rear looked way to beefy for a wimpy golf cart. But the 8" stuff would break down so often that the company ended up having to have a forklift repair service on call day and night to fix the damn things.
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