If you can't do the welding the cost of this "cheap swap" can get out of hand in a hurry. They are going to have to cut off your brackets and weld them onto the new housing correctly, and then fab up some kind of TA mount. I could easily see $500 or more for that work.

A bolt in 9" starts to seem like a good idea as cost escalate. Keep in mind that what a SBC is to engines the 9" Ford is to rear ends. Basically there is the 9" price, and then everything else, which is more expensive. If you ever want to do a gear or diff swap the 9" will always be the cheapest for those parts. The 9" is also just a better design. You have three pinion bearings instead of two, it uses very little power to drive for its strength, and its reasonably light.

I'm all for cheap swaps, but as cost start to rise keep in mind that there's a reason why the 9" Ford is the gold standard for rear ends.

 

I agree... the most expensive part will be the welding/fabrication. But if you can weld somewhat decent without FLUX!!! you can do it.

The 9" housing is great, And if your in the need for more power handling etc then why not, esp if you cant weld/fabricate. But I like to be different, not saying i wont go for a 9" down the road, and if i break this ford 8.8 then i prob will have to. But i have to dissagree with the 9" and its power consumption. Stated KINDLY is that it "uses very little power to drive for its strength" but it does eat up a good bit more power compared to a GM 10bolt or a ford 8.8, mainly due to the offset pinion etc, not to mention weight over a smaller 10bolt. The housing for a 9" is relatively cheap... since its mostly just mild steel and axle tubing, but the center sections are mucho$$. If i ever put out over 800hp/ break my ford 8.8 i would look into a 9" tho

 

I've been looking into doing this, I also have the skills and like projects. My thought is about the axle tubes: you cut off the mounting brackets for the GM rear end and welded them to the Ford rear end, why not cut off the axle tubes on both rear ends and weld the GM axle tubes onto the Ford 8.8? Couldn't you then keep the GM brakes and just buy a set of axles with the correct # of splines?

 

People do that. The issue is the axle tube DIAs are different as well as tube thickness. Once you cut the axle tubes u need a special axle/tube aligner which is used to align the tubes for welding. Once you weld the heat will distort the tubes position considerably and then the tubes will need to be bent/pressed and aligned.

It's the custom tools required that deters people, not the difficulty.

 

I have thought that it must be possible to sleeve the tube(s) where you made the cut. If the tubes are a different diameter I would think that any machine shop could take the sleeve (with the correct ID of the smaller tube) and bore/hone it out to the larger tubes ID, if such a sleeve doesn't already exist. If the sleeves were several inches long with a tight fit and the cut was made as close to the spring perches as possible and the sleeve was stitch welded I would think that the distortion would negligible? Any of that sound do-able?

 

You still need a housing fixture to align everything with the main bearing bore.

 

I don't see the sleeves helping much. Even if the sleeves are tight the axle tubes don't have to be straight. Even then after welding everything is going to be distorted and misaligned. This happens with new axles and housings made from strange, moser etc. even with the right tools the axle tubes will still be off considerably. Then they literally put the rear in a large press and bend the axles tubes to align them after welding etc. this is with the special axle aligning tool installed so they know where the axle will be centered.

So like i said the issue isn't cutting and welding. It's having the correct tools to align it all to get it as close as possible for the final alignment bending.

 

the proper fixture is easy to make for aligning the tubes/housing ends.

though recently i have come across a guy on ebay selling the fixtures for cheaper then most ppl can make them unless u have acess to a lathe and can get some 3 inch + round stock for free/cheap


heres one set for 99$'s , u would need to source the proper 1 1/4 inch alignment bar though , and the outer bushings wont work

he has a complete set for 189$'s that will have the proper 8.8 inner bushings and the proper set of 7.5 outers for putting the 7.5 tubes on the 8.8


im about to do this myself and i have a set of alignment bushings and bar maybe ill start doing housings for other ppl depending on what my cost on parts is , junkyards here are really high priced, my buddy lives out in nevada and has some really cheap jy's there maybe i can get him to pick me up parts as he comes to town usually 2x a month

 

8.8 is a very good rear, but unfortunately Ford used C clips. If you're going to do any fab on an 8.8 you might as well cut the ends off and install 9" ends.

 

It would probably be safe to run fixed aftermarket calipers then. Nice.

 

to do the swap cheap u would use the f-body tubes so u could just pick up a 7.5 10 bolt c-clip elim kit
lots of ways to do the swap though depending on how much money u spend , spend to much and u may as well just put a 9" / 12 bolt / dana 60 in it