8.8 in my 86

[scenario]

I have had my 86 1D for 31 years now and just realized it has an 8.8 rear end! I never noticed it before until today. Crazy and I am shocked. I have my car mostly apart right now bc I am doing some heavy duty work to it to keep it on the road.
I bought from the original owner back in 1992 but he was a lying POS. Turns out the car had been in an accident and lied right to my (then) 22 year old inexperienced face. Said was never in accident etc etc etc...
The car had the driver side quarter replaced and some repair work on the driver door. It got hit or hit something pretty good. The area under the rear seat has crease in the floor so it got rocked pretty hard. I fixed all that now but either way the guys is a scu@bag for lying! Yes, buyer beware BUT that was long ago and long before carfax etc...

I would have to guess that the rear end was damaged in the accident and was replaced???

The rear is the proper 3.73 and you would never know by looking under there that it was not original but SVOs did NOT come with the 8.8

Back then Ford Motorsports was selling brand new rear ends with limited slip for 300 bucks so maybe he had it changed...who knows. I was just shocked as hell when I was looking close at it. I changes the rear end fluid like 7 or 8 years ago and never noticed...

I have owned man foxes over the years but never 2 at the same time until now. I also replaced a few 7.5s with 8.8s over the years too

Go figure

[svono50]

That is interesting you never noticed it changed. My guess is that accident tweaked the original 7.5 and it was easier to throw in an 8.8, as it doesn't take much to swap over the brakes and brackets. I just rebuilt my 8.8 that I put in my 86 a couple years ago, as it was finally in need for new guts. Many folks have tried to debate that the 86's came with 8.8's, but that just isn't the case.

[scenario]

The car is a "driver" and always has been. I never had a reason to look close at the rear end. It was done in the first 5 years of its life that I did not own it. My rear is a bit noisy and needs the guts replaced too...

[scenario]

[canyonsvo]

The car is a "driver" and always has been. I never had a reason to look close at the rear end. It was done in the first 5 years of its life that I did not own it. My rear is a bit noisy and needs the guts replaced too...

You might see your doctor about that. LOL!

[scenario]

Lol!

[svono50]

If you look in my project thread (#75-79) you can see the main source of the noise in my rear was definitely the rear axles. The pinion seal finally started leaking enough that I had to pull it apart and go through it all. I tried running 'axle-saver' bearings, but could never get them to seal and not leak, so had to go back to regular bearings and seals. So far the Dutchman axles have been nice and quiet.

[scenario]

I know my ring and pinion are very worn. Just the movement of the "slack" in my driveshaft when I put my hand on it and give it a twist is way too much. The dial indicator would prob go around 3 times if I measured the backlash...LOL

[svono50]

I wonder if the backlash is more bearing slop vs actual gear wear? I know my backlash came right back into spec with the refreshed bearings in my housing.

I am running FMS 4.10's that I got out of my buddies former '88 GT that he drag raced when he moved up to 4.30's. Couldn't pass up the deal and was able to sell off the brand new 3.73's that were in the 8.8 that I bought. I got more for the 3.73's than I paid for both the 8.8 and 4.10's...winner, winner, chicken dinner!!

[scenario]

A question about the 8.8 in my car.

What is the difference with an 8.8 when it comes to mounting the SVO specific hardware for the rear brakes?

Again, I have had this car for over 30yrs and never noticed it wasn't the original rear so this swap was done sometime between 1986-1992 so the 8.8 is from that vintage. My parking brake never worked well as long as I have owned the car. I messed with it about a year or 2 ago and with the aftermarket brake cables the only way I could get the brakes to hold tight was to make extensions for the parking brake levers that are on the calipers. The "throw" was too short for the cables to fully "tighten" the arm... That could be a prob with the aftermarket cables having too long or short springs possibly. Since the rear is not original I am thinking maybe the rear end is the problem for the parking brakes....idk...

[scenario]

Here is my mod

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BEKXtJpbzbNTaZMt7

[svono50]

I would have to guess it is your cables, since it looks like the cable springs are too long and binding up on you in that video. All the brake brackets should have been transferred over to the 8.8, which is what I did on my 8.8 swap back in the day. I ended up removing the factory self-tapping screws and replaced with SS socket head cap screws so I could remove them if ever needed.

[svono50]

Here are a couple of pics of the brackets on my 8.8. Clean one was back in 2007 when I replaced my calipers and did the SS brake lines and the 'dirty' one was from back in 2019 when I rebuilt the whole assembly. HTH.

Axle - Fasteners_Mounting Brackets_02.jpg Axle - Fasteners_Mounting Brackets_04.jpg

[scenario]

I would have to guess it is your cables

I guess I could cut some of the spring off to see if that corrects the problem. I would rather not have the "bubba'd up" extension brackets I made...smh

[scenario]

On a bit of a crazy note, my axle tag that is on this 8.8 rear is a tag from a 7.5 rear and it is stamped "265F"on the top line. That is on the SVO build sheets for the 7.5 axle and the 3.73 gear ratio. I guess when the axle was swapped whoever installed it also put the axle tag from the 7.5 on it???

That on face value makes zero sense to me. Who would have done that? and why?

3SL73 75 7B18 is what is on the bottom line of the tag. The 75 denotes a 7.5" differential...

any thoughts...always bizarre things with cars I guess.