Thinking about going to a 9 inch when my 55 sunliner gets a y block again,all the 57s are gone in a local junkyard but there is this cheap 61 that the rear end looks narrow since the rear wheels look to be about 3 or 4 inches in from the lip of the quarter panels so anyone know if they are close in width.
As I recall, '57/'58/'59 were the narrowest of the 9" passenger cars of that era. They were about '57"/58", I believe. I have two 'small body' (Ford based) '58 Edsel axles and they are 60.75", which I believe is same as '60 Ford and up for a few years. Though it is OT, '90s era Ranger pickups with 4.0 V6 or extended cabs, use a 8.8" Ford axle with 5 x 4.5" bolt circle and are 58.5" wms to wms. They can be found with either 9" or 10" drum brakes, depending on application. Obviously, the 10" brakes would be preferable. The 8.8" is considered to be as strong as the typical 9". Ray
Might look for a small bearing early Bronco rear end, lots of guys change the out fir big bearing 9 inch. Not sure on width but should be one of the narrower ones. Bones
They are narrow enough....but have the 5 x 5.5" bolt pattern. That could be changed of course.... Ray
^^^^^^^yep..........but the '90s era goes all the waaaay to '99..... and, the 58.5" continues into the 2000s
61 Ford full size is in the 56-57 inch width backing plate to backing plate.That car likely has 2,or 2.25 inch wide brakes so add about 5 inches.That puts you around 61-62 inches drum to drum.67-68 Mustang had a narrower 9 inch,but the odds of finding one in a yard arent good.Quick Performace sells housing axle packages for about 680 bucks.Another though is the 2012 era Mustang.Comes with posi,discs,several ratios,59 inches wide rotor flange to rotor flange.Centered pinion.Yards are full of them too.
The Mustang 8.8" began in 1986 and thru '93 are the dimensions you quote....59" and a fraction. Starting in '94 and thru '98, the housing width remained the same, but the axles are 1" wider on each side. That was due to the addition of disc brakes and the caliper brackets, etc. I am familiar with this because I have both a '98 and an '89 axle assembly in my shop currently. Preceisely because they are centered pumpkin is why I am using them. The Ranger has an offset pumpkin, but will work in many applications nonetheless. In my case, a '37 Chevy, the floor contours require a centered differential for clearance. Ray
I used a 8.8 in my 56 with early 90's F-150 rear 11" drums. A little wider shoes than stock. Will take the stock E-brake cable with a little filing of the hole. Axles had 5 on 4-1/2" and drums had both patterns.
I used a 69 fairlane 9 inch housing & axles in my 55 wagon. its one inch narrower drum to drum than a stock tri five rear
With the dwindling stockpile of the narrower nine inch housings it has kind of turned into a "holy grail" deal trying to find and match up existing rearends and certain body combinations. With the proliferation of shops doing housing narrowing and custom axles I don't quite understand the reason to struggle with this, especially with the available dimensional database out there on all the various swap applications. It's not like it was in the 60's/70's when there were only a small handful of shops doing custom rearend work, nowadays, every corner of the country has shops doing this. Why is it people nowadays find it so easy to pay big money for a cel phone with all the bells and whistles or five bucks for a Starbucks coffee (every day) but won't spend it on things like this?
I agree Denny. I looked around for a while trying to find just the right rear axle for my old car. I ended up buying a bolt in axle from Currie through Summit.
I have a '61 nine inch in my '47 Plymouth. It fit good but of course I Don't know how wide it is. Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Here's a pretty handy chart to show axle widths for a lot of different applications. http://www.carnut.com/specs/rear.html
While that chart that we are directed to by the "link" is very helpful it is not 100% correct. It groups all of the Edsels 58-60 as one housing size of 60.00. That information is incorrect. All of the 58 Edsel wagons are based on the 57 Ford chassis and therefore have the shorter 57.25 housing. 57 housings also had two sizes of axle bearings. Standard size bearing for passenger cars and T Birds and the larger bearings for police cars,station wagons and taxis Oldmics
If I can find one that fits from this junkyard I will have alot less then buying a new one,not every one has deep enough pockets to buy everything new. My budget only allows me to do it the old school way,looking like I will keep the 8 inch in it for now.
Jeff, I'm hearing you and when I posted that I knew the kind of responses I would get. And that's ok, I've never been a bucks up kind of guy either, I've just always made the adjustments to acquire some of the "gotta have" components for my projects. Your operative word was "if" and that kind of reflects my comment as to finding that holy grail part, we just don't live in the times when much of this stuff was readily available.
I might have to get a new one but since the 8 inch is not broke I have plenty of time to find one and if I can not then I will take that option,30 years ago I did not think that old parts would be this hard to find.
The "57"-"59" Ranchero, Station Wagon, and Sedan Delivery "9" inch are just a pinch narrower than the "9" inch under the regular car. Check a Hollander Interchange Manual and check it out. But, good luck in finding one.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That may be BUT according to the original 1957 Ford Chassis book the length of the axles for all of the 9" housings is the same. Right side - 30 7/16 Left side - 26 1/16 All are 28 spline I know there could be some "give" in the axle fit if we are talking incremental differences in the tube length but I dont see where there would be any differences in the overall length of the housing since the axles are the same length for all of the 9" housings. Of course there differences in the spring perch mounting and the bearing sizes of the tube. Oldmics
Not as easy changing bolt patterns as you would think, the retaining plate access hole gets in the way and there's that pesky step in the flang that gets in the way of certain bolt patterns. I just went through this trying to convert a bronco to 5x4.75, bought that re-drilling jig and it put it right in the hole, then I noticed the step in the flange. I ended up buying new Moser axles in the chevy pattern and re-drilled my drums to suit. I have 3 cars with the bronco axle, cut off the old spring perches, weld new ones on plus shock mounts. Here you can see how the one hole for the new lug pattern goes right into the access hole and also you can see the step in the flange
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