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PostPosted: October 25, 2006, 12:20 pm 
everything you say is accurate about the 6-3/4", 8", 7.5" and 8.8". You should be able to get an 8.8 for about $100 out of an early Fox body Mustang, but I would think that any Locost of <2000lbs and less than 400 horsepower would not hurt a 7.5". The 8" and 8.8" are heavier. The 8" is a smaller and lighter version of the well known Ford 9", but it has its problems (usually the pinion support bearing failure). the 7.5 and 8.8 are the same family of the newer Ford diffs. Lots available for both of them and the axles, brakes, driveshaft, etc that fits one, also fits the other.


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PostPosted: November 4, 2006, 5:24 pm 
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Location: Mesa, AZ
I ended up getting an 8.8 out of a lincoln mkVII, it's 61" from WMS but the diff looks to be offset by nearly 2" to the passanger side. I still need to get it out of my trunk (yes i fit a rear axle in the back of an M3). nice thing is that it is 5 lug and has HUGE rear vented disc brakes. I may look into cutting it down by 2" if i can figure out which axle will fit.

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PostPosted: November 4, 2006, 8:54 pm 
The advantage of that rear is that you can get axles from a Ford Ranger (I think you need 2 right side axles, it might be 2 left side axles, I forget) and it will end up 3" narrower than what you have. All you have to do is build offset disc brake caliper mounts to mount the calipers 1.5" more inboard on each side and it will all work easily...


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PostPosted: November 4, 2006, 8:56 pm 
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GatoEnFuego wrote:
I ended up getting an 8.8 out of a lincoln mkVII, it's 61" from WMS but the diff looks to be offset by nearly 2" to the passanger side... I may look into cutting it down by 2" if i can figure out which axle will fit.


The obvious solution would be to get another passenger side axle and cut two inches out of the driver side axle tube.


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PostPosted: November 5, 2006, 12:28 pm 
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correction, it's a 7.5 and non limited slip. not a big deal because i got it pretty cheap. now i have no idea what it's out of, like i said before the rear disk brakes are huge and vented and has 5 lug so i'm going to guess something newer than mid to late 80's. and it's quite clean (hasn't been cleaned, just not years of build up), i'm going to guess it might have come from a 4cyl 94+ mustang.

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PostPosted: November 6, 2006, 12:23 am 
94+ 6 cylinder Mustangs have solid rotors that are about 1/2" thick.. I think they got larger with the 2001+ or there abouts... I need to check my daughter's Mustang and see what her rear brakes look like.


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PostPosted: November 7, 2006, 10:03 pm 
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i'll have to post some pics, because these are massive compared to my stock mustang II rotors.

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PostPosted: November 8, 2006, 2:02 am 
It would probably be from a mid 80s MK VII.


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PostPosted: November 8, 2006, 9:03 am 
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aren't those all 8.8s?

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PostPosted: November 8, 2006, 10:35 am 
Not the early ones.


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PostPosted: January 5, 2007, 2:22 pm 
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Is the ranger rear too narrow to work in the above mentioned chassis? They were available with 8.8 after 1990. Rear disc brakes from a lincoln towncar fit but discs and brackets are not intechangeable between 8.8 and 7.5.

I doubt a 7.5 could be broken in such a light car. Monster Miata's(which weigh around 2500 lbs) use a 7.5 95% of the time. I have never seen the diff fail.

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12


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 Post subject: Spreadsheet
PostPosted: January 7, 2007, 1:19 am 
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Joined: January 3, 2007, 12:49 pm
Posts: 197
Location: Lanark Highlands, ON
I've put together a little spreadsheet with various info for the axles I have looked at so far.

http://fxide.ca/content/projects/locost/data/Locost_Axle_Dimensions.xls

It is in MS Excel format, if you don't have Excel go download OpenOffice (http://openoffice.org) as it will read in Excel files no problem.

The red numbers are speculative (WAG). Change them as appropriate for your build to see the changes in the table for each axle and wheel backspacing scenario.

There are some additional axle widths on my web site here:

http://moose.ca/axle_widths

All of these axle measurements are wheel mount surface to wheel mount surface (WMS to WMS).

If people want to add axles to the spreadsheet feel free. Feedback appreciated.


Last edited by Darth V8r on January 7, 2007, 7:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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PostPosted: January 7, 2007, 4:47 pm 
I am using my donor's wide rear axle, a 1993 Ford Aerostar. The width taken from the outside edge of 15" x 6 tires is 66". Since I built a 46 1/4 " wide chassis my car looks alright. Wide axles can also be found on GM Astros, Ford Lincolns.


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PostPosted: January 7, 2007, 6:48 pm 
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Did you use the aerostars aluminum driveshaft and 3 link rear mounting too?

The ranger rears are reported to be 58" wms to wms.

_________________
Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12


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 Post subject: Re: Spreadsheet
PostPosted: January 7, 2007, 10:22 pm 
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Location: Charleston, WV
can7 wrote:
I've put together a little spreadsheet with various info for the axles I have looked at so far.

http://fxide.ca/content/projects/locost/data/Locost_Axle_Dimensions.xls

It is in MS Excel format, if you don't have Excel go download OpenOffice (http://openoffice.org) as it will read in Excel files no problem.

The red numbers are speculative (WAG). Change them as appropriate for your build to see the changes in the table for each axle and wheel backspacing scenario.

There are some additional axle widths on my web site here:

http://moose.ca/axle_widths

All of these axle measurements are wheel mount surface to wheel mount surface (WMS to WMS).

If people want to add axles to the spreadsheet feel free. Feedback appreciated.


Thanks for doing this, we need to collect all of the data we can get. I for one appreciate your efforts.

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