I've searched this topic and it seems like it has come up a couple times, but I can't find anyone who has actually fabbed their own 9" ford rear for a 3rd gen. Of course everybody's first response is "buy a moser" etc....
thats not what I'm asking.
I already have a ford 9" housing with axles that was a backup rear when I had my circle track car. A friend of mine had a jig built for the G-body chassis that we used to use to weld up brackets for rearends to fit them. (matter of fact this rear that I have has g-body brackets on it)
I just know that with the torque arm and track bar it my be a lil more tricky in this case.
I have an extra stock 3rd gen rear I could build a jig off of. just wondering if anyone here has actually done it??
This rear is 2.5" wider overall than my stock 3rd gen rear. which wouldn't be a bad thing, especially if I switch to 4th gen wheels.

oh yeah, don't worry about brakes either....another thing I learned circle track racing is how to fab up disc brakes to work on just about anything!

 

Sounds like you already have the know-how to do it. Go for it. Lots of people will tell you you'll end up spending just as much as you would buying a moser rear, so keep your receipts I want to see the final product and cost.
No, I've never seen any pics of of a bare axle fabbed up and installed in a third gen, but a few people have made torque arm mounts for various axles though, you could probably get some inspiration from them.

Here's an excellent resource for the cut and formed steel parts you'll need. This sort of thing is done all the time in the off-road/rock crawling world. http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/...ngOptions.html

 

I fabbed up my 12 bolt, but the principal is the same for the 9". Currie sells a torque arm mount for the 9", although I dont think its THAT strong looking at it but I could be wrong. I just measured ALOT before cutting off the old brackets from the donor 10 bolt and welding them on the new rear. I did not make a jig for the rears and it all worked out almost perfect. I was only off by 1/16 side to side and my adj panhard fixed that. If you got the skills to do it, I would suggest it much cheaper and you can say you actually did it. My rear, I bought new moser axles, girdle, LS1 brakes, gears, rebuilt posi, and bearings and have about 900 in it vs. 3000 new.

 

Thanks for the reply. What did you fab for a torque arm mount? I thought about using some thick plate steel and making some sort of flat bracket coming off the top and bottom of the housing. or some kind of triangulated tubular TA mount.
if you have any pics of yours I'd like to see it. thanks!

 

I know a few people have made 8.8's on here but i have never heard of anyone doing a 9inch. Cant wait to see the end product as well

 

If you search on ls1tech.com, there are a lot of people swapping over 8.8's. My mount is similar to this one. http://ls1tech.com/forums/gears-axle...yea-haaaa.html It's hard to describe, but I basically used 1/8 flat steel across the pinion both sides and tied it together with some steel sleeves for the bolts to go through. I combined all that to the separate piece of my umi torque arm. I made it so its removable just in case.

In order to mod the 9", you would want to go off the housing instead of the center section so you can easily remove it if needed to. Here's a link to the currie mount. http://www.currieenterprises.com/ces...E.aspx?id=1595

It welds onto the housing and is what their rear ends come with for a f body.

 

The hardest part about using a junkyard 9" is the torque arm mount. You should still be able to buy the torque arm mount kit from Currie that welds onto the 9" housing.

My first 9" was out of a 1970 F100. It was just about the same width as a third gen diff. Throw out the axles as the bolt pattern is useless and they're only 28 spline. Measure many times before cutting off the LCA, panhard bar, shock mounts etc off a donor 10 bolt and weld them onto the 9" diff. When I did mine, I didn't use a torque arm. I fabbed up a ladder bar system. Once I calculated the axle width for the brakes to work, I ordered new 31 spline axles to fit into a 31 spline posi. The ladder bars needed a bunch of floor modifications to clear the ladder bars.

A few years later I back halved my car and narrowed a 9" basically the same way except I put 4-link brackets on the tubes. Cut the tubes down to the width I wanted then ordered new axles. On both 9" diffs, I used the older style center housing. The late model ones are larger and wider.

As for mounting disk brakes, check out my sticky in the brake forum about installing disk brakes onto just about any diff.

 

Did u by chance take any pics of the 70 F100 9 inch in the car? I bought a 72 F100 which is the same axle cause I too noticed it was real close to fit. My concern is the center of my 9 bolt looks to be 1 3/8 different then the center of the 9 inch. Did u just use the 9 inch in stock form with GM f body brackets or did u modify the 9 inch. If u can verify it works with no mods meaning moving the center on the 9 inch and using different axles, that would be great. I got lucky and found a 72 F100 axle that had 31 spine shafts and factory limited slip with 3.50 ratio so I was hoping to rebuild it and make it work with the Currie bracket kit.

 

The F100 diff uses identical length axles so the pinion is offset about 1-1/2" to 2" to the passenger side. I never had a problem with the offset.

My narrowed 9" has the pinion centered in the car so one axle is longer than the other.

My first 9" used Ford 11 x 2-1/4" drum brakes. It was the easiest way to fabricate brakes. Found a proper backing plate for the large Ford ends. Bought new shoes and hardware. Found drums without the large cooling fins off some late 60's midsize car. Can't remember the exact part number. I went to the local parts store and went through catalogs and opened boxes until I found a drum that would work. Since I was using Weld Draglite rims at the time, they had dual bolt pattern so I ordered the axles in the ford 5 x 4-1/2 pattern. When I used the 5/8" drive studs, I had to drill out the stud holes in the drums.

I cut all the brackets off a 10 bolt and welded them onto the 9". I just didn't use a torque arm but fabricated a ladder bar suspension.

 

Did u get any pics, everyone loves pics.

Well then I plan to cut the brackets for my disc brakes off a junk 9 bolt I got given to me and fab them to the 9 inch. then drill the chevy bolt pattern onto the ford shafts.

 

Dusty84Z, where are you located. I have a buddy in Pittsburgh PA that has a jig that has made 9" rears for fbodys. Its setup for 4th gens I believe but you can likely narrow the rear down.

He welds on the spring mounts and LCA mounts and torque arm bracket somehow. I havent seen it yet, but the one he has done in a 00 Z28 has been bracket racing ALL season running 1.4 60 foots, 10.4's at 130 or so all year. its holding up well! I am considering having him build one for me.

 

Custom torque arm for solid rear in a C4 Vette

 

I'm in AR. won't be travelling to PA anytime soon but that was kind of the idea I had. build a jig of my extra 10 bolt rearend. then I could do the 9" and if I ever wanted to do another or one for a friend I can use the jig again.
Thanks for the reply Alky. Glad to know someone else has done this with success. the axles that are already in this rear end are re-drilled to 4.75" GM pattern. but I'll have to check and see if they are 28 or 31 spline.

For disc brakes this is basically what we always did with circle track cars.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/US-Bra...its,26351.html
just weld the caliper brackets to the axle tube and use GM metric front calipers. we didn't even use the rotor/hat setup either. we found that rotors off a jeep grand cherokee or something worked quite well, and could be had at any parts store.

If I decide to do this I'll document it. only bad part is if I do then I have to locate a center section, gears, posi, etc. because I let all the extras I had go with my racecar....ahh the money pit grows deeper. lol

edit: Alky, I just checked out your disc brake sticky. very similar to what I'm used to. as you said, for applications not requiring a park brake this is by far the easiest cheapest way to convert to discs.

 

I'm just curious what housing do you use? I'd have to ask my friend but I have no idea where to even start looking for housings Need 4th gen length on my car or close to it.

I think my friends use 11" ford explorer brakes. Not sure tho but I've read thats a popular disc brake option

 

I did that long before digital cameras were around

 

I didn't want the heavy cast iron metric calipers. I use aluminum rear calipers from a 99 Jimmy but they're also found on other vehicles. I fabricated my own mounting brackets similar to a Currie setup for a similar type caliper. Since mine is a drag car, I don't need any sort of park brake.

I don't like the idea of welding mounting brakes to the tube. It's too easy to get it misaligned. At 150+ MPH, I don't want problems with the brakes.

Explorer brakes would work if you use the new style (Torino) ends.

 

Here's a few pics of the jig, housing & torque arm I built a while back. I have the housing back out of the car to narrow it a little. I get some more pics this weekend.

 

So whats the final width of the axle in the form that u have shown there? Better yet what are the measurements of the tubes to the center of the of the yoke or tube lengths if u have those.

 

Damn dean! Wanna make me one?

What style of brackets did you use for the lca and shock mount?

Another thing is what was your axle length with the offset pinion?

Also how much offset is the pinion to the passenger side?

Also last questions what your width from outer flange to outer flange?

Sorry for all the questions but I really wanna build one for my car. Sorry for asking the same Questions as torn but I figured you could reply with the answers inserted in

 

OK guys, I'll be back at my shop this weekend, and I'll get some measurements. The LCA & shock mounts are made from 3/16" thick mild steel that I fabbed up. They have the lower hole positions like the relocation brackets. The shock mounts have an additional hole for lowered cars also. The panhard bar & spring mounts were cut from another third gen rear. The rear end, axle flange to axle flange is 3/4" shorter than the fourth gen version. The exact measurement escapes me, as it was last year when I built it. I've also changed the torque arm design a little. I have a few to build for some friends, as soon as I'm satistfied with the design of the torque arm.

 

heres my fab 9 setup.

 

Dave nice rearend!! Lol.

What's that bar going from the rear forward in the second pic? It's on the far right.

Also what's the bars on the top of the rearend going up through the body? If its a sway bar could I get a pic of mounting point?

Please and thank you

 

i couldnt run the panhard bar anymore due to the coil overs. Its a wishbone bar setup,if you look on the far left of the pics you`ll see the left side bar.

the bars on top go to the anti-roll bar heres a pic.

 

wow thats nice fab work!

who did all the tig welding? i bet they had fun with all that.

also could you email me more pics of your chassis/cage to monty_johnson_2007@yahoo.com or post more of them cuz youre chassis looks like a real nice setup i wouldnt mine taking a few ideas from you.

 

I looked at just about every option and the cost to put a 9" under my 82 firebird. I ended up ordering a housing and axles from Quick Performance in IA. i think i paid around $1400 for the housing, moser axles, complete disc. brake kit including the braided lines and shipping... I already had 9" chunk with gears anda spool...