1950 Shoebox rear.....gear options?

The stock rear end on my shoebox is leaking a little, so I'm trying to decide whether to swap it out or not. And, considering I don't have another rear right now, I wanna see if there is anywhere I can find replacement seals and gears for it. I'm not sure what the gears are in it, but from reading, it seems it has something around a 4:27 Eitherway, with my 3 speed C6, it doesn't go very fast at 3000 rpms, so I wanna see if anyone makes anything from a 2:75 - 3:55 for it. Any ideas? Thanks, Shawn

 

Nothing was made for that in the range you are looking for. Easiest replacement is an 8" Ford from Maverick/Granada/early Mustang/Fairlane/Falcon/Comet......widely available with 2.79 and 3.0 gears....and others, though less common, 3.25 to 3.50

Ray

 

In addition to the ones Ray mentioned, the 8.8 rear out of an Explorer might work too. Those can be found down to 3.08:1, and can be had with discs or drums, depending on you flavor preference.

They are super-common in the yards right now (at least in my area), as they were the #1 vehicle in the clunkers program.

 

Good call on the Explorer 8.8.........also the Ford Ranger 7.5 and 8.8 would be suitable.........and are a bit narrower than the Explorer....

Ray

 

I have a 2001 Explorwe rear end for my next " under consideration " project. It measures 60 inches ( wheel mounting flange to wheel mounting flange ) The Mavericks are 56 inches ...

So I would believe that the Explorer rear is T O O wide for a Ford shoebox.

 

You probably have the overdrive rear. The Mercs had 4:27 and the Fords had 4:11.

 

The Ranger 8.8, or even the 7.5 would be good too, as it is narrower, although I don't exactly by how much. The Internets seem to be in disagreement on the exact width.

Anybody have an actual one you can get an actual WMS to WMS measurement from?

 

I put in a 56 ford rearend i have a flatty w/c-4 it seemes to be geared right it is a 3:25 gear it's the same size as stock, i had to make pads with the right size hole to line up the nipple on the springs.

 

My '51 was originally a Ford-o-matic car. I am still running the stock rear end, which I believe is a 3.31. Should be a straight bolt-in for your car, and would probably be the same for any Fordo car 1951-1956.

Although people imagine that they have to replace shoebox rear ends for strength reasons, I've been running this with a ZZ3 Chebby for more than 15 years. Broke an axle once; otherwise zero trouble.

Try an obsolete Ford parts place for rebuild stuff, and maybe even a 3.31 gearset. When I broke the axle in 1999 I was able to get all the replacement stuff from Little Dearborn in Minneapolis, which is where I was at the time.

This car:

 

Thanks for the info fellas. I will be heading to the junkyards to see what I can find

 

The Ranger 8.8's are 57" from WMF to WMF. That is probably what I going to use, as the only 8" I found was $400.