I've got a ?, I'm in the process of narrowing a 57 Ford 9" rear housing on the long side(that's putting in 2 short side axles thus moving the pinion off center 2") I was talking to a friend about it & he claims if you offset the pinion it will toss the driveshaft...I think it doesn't matter.....I did a search & couldn't find any info about the results...Who is correct, I have all the pieces & I'm ready to cut now!!Need a ACCURATE answer a.s.a.p.
MANY car come with the driveshaft offset to one side, Early Bronco's are a perfect example. Your friend knows not of what he speaks
Ive run a similar setup in my '55 Chevy for years. As long as the pinion centerline and crankshaft/transmission centerlines are parallel (looking down from the top) you'll be fine. My '57 rear was of the small bearing variety, so rather than hunting for another short side '57 axle I was able to use a 28 spline 8" axle that was 3" shorter than the long side axle. An added bonus was that the 8" axle was much beefier than the original tapered '57 axle.
Hello , listen to your friend the long axle if you have a centred pinion axle 'even stock they come centred case off-set pinion' but if you have a centred pinion axle, the difference in the long and short is 4 and 1/8 inches if you fit 2 shafts the same length, your pinion will be offset 4 1/8 inch, also your case will be offset 2 and a bit inches and will look mighty stupid, as you will have the long and short tubes on the wrong sides. so, looking down at your axle, imaging the longer side shorter 4.1/8 inches, it will look awful if you want the axle you have 8 . 1/4 inches shorter, use the short as the long and take 8.1/4 fromt the long one with a respline - centred pinion offset case2 aqnd a smidge right, looking backk from the top if you want it about 6'' narrower- as I can't remember exactly 'doing it at the moment though' use the short as the long and take 'about 6 from the long' - you will centre the case and offset the pinion to the left about 1 and 3/4'' looking on the top rear wards - easy to do as the axle tubes are the same lennght /\ what I mean by easy to do is, you know the long one is 4 and 1.8 longer, so you remove that from the tube, machine the tube from the bearing housing and re-fit, fit the short side in. then cut the other side the same amount, and measure what you need
If you're trying to center the 9" banjo, you will still have two different axle lengths. The actual pinion offset in a 9" is about 15/16". Most/all production vehicles with pinion offsets also have the engine/trans offset (normally to the passenger side) the same amount, so the only U-joint working angles to consider are vertical. But when the pinion is offset to the engine/trans, this compound horizontal angle has to be included with any vertical U-joint working angles.
It worked on my pro street I sold last year and I drove it for 5 yrs. like that? I had Quick Performance in Ames, Iowa build the housing and they didn't think it was a problem, He's been building rear ends for years?.....The only difference was I had Moser axles in it. But yes it works just fine.
It will work and I have done it on a 57' rear. Your center section will be centered which doesn't matter. I have a 30' Chrysler coupe and the factory stock original rear looks like a modern day rear end and the center section is centered in the middle from the factory. Of course you will have to relocate the spring perch after cutting.I had a bunch of early Ford 9's laying around so I decided to shorten one to see how it would turn out. A friend of mine who has a speed shop had done several so I decide to do one for my pickup project. Didn't look out of place or funny at all after it was completed. If I'm not mistaken a think the late 50's Old's rears are centered in the middle also. I had a 58' Old's rear a while back and I'm sure the center section was in the middle of the rearend.
Forgot to mention, yes the pinion will not be centered, you will have an angle on the drive shaft, the u-joints should compensate for that. The couple my friend built never had issues with knocking out u-joints or anything like that
I know people how run Ultra4 4x4's at 100plus mph in the desert with offset pinion - it is not a problem.
yes , sorry I got my sums wrong I do it inmm 105mm longer , can't do that fraction imperial, but twice its 210mm = 8.3/4'' what length are you after? oh. p.s. it kind of works with the 8.8 as there pinion/diff is different, i thiink its 3 inches rather than 4 and half of 3/4
When I started building customer chassis back in the 70's none of the trick pre built smoothy rear housings were available but 57/59 rears were easy to come by. My standard deal was to shorten the right side about 2 inchs and use a 61/64 Ford left side axle. Did I have no idea how many over the years. Also used the 61/64 rear brakes. 2 inch pinion offset to the right is common as 95% of the rears we use today are housing centered.
have you done one with 98-04 grand cherokee bearing housings and resplined shafts? so yo ui get the 12 inch brakes?
Thanks for the replies, I think I'm going to do as originally planned, if it tosses the d.shaft I'll know we were wrong.....God knows I'm wrong alot!....thanks again!!
My 32 3W Ford has 57 Ford 9 inch rear with the same exact set up under it. Works great with no issues
As long as your have the centerlines of of the eng/trans and pinion shaft parallel, the angle is just and angle.......the u-joint doesn't know any diffference, so long as it doesn't exceed the u-joints maximum angular capacity For those naysayers, please explain how driveshaft angling down a bit differs from one that angles to the side a bit.......... Ray
A 57 stock axle cant be resplined as far as im aware, but you can buy a new one in any spline, length etc
As long as the up/down angle matches on the transmission and the side angle offset matches there should be no problem. Example: Pinion up 2°, trans down 2° = good to go. Side to side offset should be trans snout parallel to center line, pinion parallel to center line = good to go. The U-joints should both be rotating around axes that are parallel and that will keep them happy.
You guys are way over thinking this. Fox body Mustangs use equal length axle shafts from the factory, that means the pinion can not be centered between the tires. I agree that the rear axle should be square in the car and perpendicular to the engine center line, but if its not, the drive shaft will not spit out. Go look at how the rear suspension works on a dirt modified or dirt late model. The dirt modified I work on has the axle out of square by an inch to start with. We run the right side wheel base one inch longer than the left side. When the car is "up on the bars" as they call it, the left rear tire moves down about 6-8 inches and forward about 6-8 inches. The right rear tire moves up and rearward about 4-6 inches. The pinion angle also changes because the one suspension link that controls pinion angle has a spring in it. The only time I have seen a drive shaft come out is because some one forgot to tighten the u-bolts. Luke