TFS: How to Narrow a Ford 8.8 Part 1 - Strip Down
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- The Ford 8.8 is quite possibly the most DIY friendly rear axles out there. You can find them everywhere in dozens of options and forms, and thy are cheap to mod and replace parts on. In this episode, Justin is narrowing one.
Part 1 is all about the strip down and measurements.
Part 2 is here:
Build Blog links below
_____________________________________________________
All of your questions about the 8.8 can be answered below.
thefabricatorse...
Step by step guide to strip down and measure
thefabricatorse...
_____________________________________________________
Tools & Gear We Use and Recommend
www.amazon.com...
Learn How to TIG Weld HANDS ON!
thefabricatorse...
Subscribe to my channel for MORE!
Check out the website: www.TheFabricat...
Like: / thefabricato. .
Follow: IG @The.Fabricator / the.fabricator
_____________________________________________________
Music because I have to.
Beach Bum - Happy Rock by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommon...)
Source: incompetech.com...
Artist: incompetech.com/ - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
the old ford van 9 inch was a beauty as well. It was sooo offset that you could easily shorten it and use it in a pinto or vega. A perfect fit. We were doing this when i was 15 years old
309 filler rod works absolutely great for just about anything disimalar especially structural. Aluminum bronze works great when not. What a great video thanks Justin ...
Jason
It's definitely a go-to filer for me. Thanks for watching!
Except that aluminum-bronze is now classed as brazing and not welding. 309/309L were specifically designed for dissimilar metal welding.
Mike Ford correct! You get a gold star.. but who said welding or brazing? Just said it’s great for dissimilar. You aren’t wrong that it’s for brazing though. Brazing is great with Alu bronze for anything non structural as stated. We said the same thing
No matter what I do this magical man has it all laid out
To clean the tube, axle housings, I took a few washers, a 5/8ths wooden dowell rod, and a screw, screwed the washers to the end of the rod and wrapped a few paper towels around it. Then, utilizing the square edge of the washer, raked the inside of the tube. Got it pretty clean. Sure beat trying to stick an arm down in there.
Walker Ashcraft I usually just wipe it out after cutting it. Whatever gets the job done best for the person doing the job is the right way 👍
This dude ROCKS! Knows his stuff, very articulate, and fun to watch! Not to mention those rows of dimes he's laying with the welding tips! Nice work Justin!! Happy New Year 2019 :)
fun fact. the 8.8 has different length axle tubes because ford actually made an 8.8 the same width as what you cut. thy put it in rangers and explorers. they just put two of the shorter tubes in for the skinny version. if anyones looking for them any explorer will have them or any ranger with a 4.0
Also look for a Ranger with a torsion bar front suspension. It has the 8.8.
pipe cutter works great and the cut is perfectly straight. Do that for my driveshafts too
I was gonna say this. I use the cutter to put a groove and then I sink the bandsaw in it. It tends to follow the groove.
I've never owned a Ford 8.8 or intend to or intend to cut the tubes, but this was cool/informative to watch.
Maybe a bit unnecessary but I have the axles shot blasted clean before cutting and welding but oh so much nicer to work on super clean and rust free axles. It takes about an hour and a few bucks worth of media but makes everything that much easier to do. The secret to good welds is the prep. Welding needs spotless clean joints. Blasting gets muck out of the metal pores and gaps.
Andrew Wilson
Agreed. The first thing I do on any project is make sure it’s clean. I realize it’s not possible or practical in some situations but working on clean parts is so nice.
Why not use the 3 inch 3150 bearing out of the 9inch 31 spline and eliminate the clip eliminate, now you have 9 inch ford caliper capacity and the correct bearing, just a thought.
The best way to determine how much the axle tube needs shortening is to measure the difference between the long drive shaft and the short drive shaft, this difference is how much the axle tube needs shortening. The best way to mark two parallel lines around the axle tube is to cut a strip of thin sheet metal to the exact width needed wrap it tight around the axle hold in place with a jubilee clip then scribe a line around both sides. Then cut the tube off against the inside edge of both scribe lines, the axle will now be cut square and at the correct length needed.
Just a tip for welding cast iron, or any weldable cast metal for that matter. Pre heat the piece with a torch. Get er good n hot. It will help the weld cool slower which reduces the chance of cracks
That was exactly my thoughts when I saw him welding the tubes to the pumpkin. It's actually cast steel but the composition off the metal is unknown. some people heat the pumpkin up with a torpedo type heater and let it gradually cool moving the heater farther away from the pumpkin in 15 minute intervals at a time.... 😎
Seen 100s of the 8.8s welded with every type of welder and NO CRACKS>.. so the steel STEEL its made up of is very good.. So dont worry about heating it up.. It will be fine.
Black Box if it’s thicker then your thumb atleast take the chill off.
correct sir
I always lay a basic beed, let it crack then go over it again HOT. Welded every type of cast steel imaginable with that method and it works like a charm. the sides of your weld never crack its always right down the center and if it doesnt crack weld it again anyways.
Just my hillbilly 2 cents.
I think I would have used a horizontal band saw to cut the axle tube. It would have saved marking all around the tube. I can cut square or rectangle tube with an angle grinder (had to cut 42 pieces of 2"x3" 11 ga tube for the CNC plasma table before we got a decent horizontal band saw) but round stock sucks for marking and cutting. We had to cut some 6" sch 40 pipe a while back. We had some scrap left over and , just screwing around, we rotated a cutt 180 degrees and cut a thin slice off. The thin part was .015" and the thick part was .031". About 0.001" per 1 inch is closer than you can cut with a angle grinder on round stock.
I was sceptical til he pulled out the 309's. It's a happy medium between the two parent metals carbon content, roughly that is.
8.8
Sloppy Mechanics I'm surpised you didn't tell him to just cut off the leaf spring mount
The denmah has spoken
BETTER A 9 INCHS......NO DAMN C CLIPS........
I've used a tubing cutter to make a witness line when I need to cut tubing square. Just a few twists makes a great line!
If the axle housing was originally built with the pinion off center, the way you just modified it, it is not on center any more. (That is why one axle was longer in the first place.)
If your new axle goes into a truck, you are golden, but if it is going into a car, the driveshaft will hit the side of the tunnel.....especially with 2 or more in the car.
The pinion is not centered on for 8.8 rear ends, that is why one axle is longer than the other
@@Redtooth75 I covered that: I switched a word by mistake. Thanks
Excellent choise of the 309 filler! I can't TIG weld but I know this stuff very well from MIG welding. Ofcourse it's originally intended to weld steel to stainless steel but it has many more uses. The shop were I used to work used a lot of 309 Mig welding to create a hardened surface area when we ran out of the special electrodes.. Bit of a backyard solution but it did the trick. This was mostly done for a lot of wear plates where abrasive stuff went through pipes 24-7.
Nice!!
Get a jig, the aluminum bushings, ground an polished shaft and new housing ends then narrow it where u want it. That's what I did. I put 9 inch housing ends on mime that way no more c clips.
Great idea to use the other axele It makes the centre in the centre now it might launch straight down the strip with even axles if you only need few more inches if not just need to get axles made up to fit great job I have a spare one at home with a lsd centre I could use the late model wheels if I did it to my car no spacers just put the late model plate to mount the rear brakes and deeep dish wheels will fit nicely thanks mate 👍
Just a couple suggestions from one welder fabricator to another, cutting the brackets off the tubes, Its much easier to use an actual grinding wheel, probably a 4inch in your case to gouge most of the weld out. The ginding wheel is obviously much stronger and you can make a few light passes over it following the high side of the weld then as it gets deeper you can buzz the top lip off to either use the cutting wheel to finish, or sometimes your lucky enough to just wack it off with min effort. Also, welding any cast iron its best to heat it with a torch first, even out past the main area but concentrated mostly on the welding area. If its somthing thats going to be structual and really need to be rugged, after your finished welding depending on what it is, give it a min to cool so it isnt red anymore and pack as much sand on it and around the area as possible. It'll make it cool slower and less prone to cracking.
once again, you are a brilliant man.
Donnie
Try big hose clamps instead of tape. You can get them right on the mark it's much faster and they won't melt when you make the cut
IMHO=Call Currie, Strange, or Moser etc., and buy a 9" housing (Dana, 12 Bolt GM whatever) to your spec ( length, pinion centered, or where you need it). No C clips, and saves a ton of work. It has stronger axles, it's straight. With a 9" Ford, you can set up center sections with different ratios, and change them in a about 1/2 hour. Cheaper in the long run. Everything this guy shows is true. He knows his business. I am not criticizing. I did this with a Dana 44, but, they don't have C clips.
I cringed when you put your welding helmet down and placed your wrist right where you welded. Must have had some time go by before recording that take.haha
I was waiting for someone to notice that. My camera guy thought it would be funny mess with people since we shot that take right after a long lunch haha.
I noticed that too. I was cringing when he touched it.
Had me confused like can you feel that it's got to be hot
Same here. Funny how he had to dress back up into gear to pretend he had just finished.
@@MattInFL they are literally actors.
The carrier ’is’ cast steel, prior to pressing tubes into the carrier, the tubes are given a sealer coating that looked like red loctite, all this did was keep the dope from seeping beyond the press fit of the tubes. Btw, I worked where these were made!
Good details. It's a big amount of work for a small job!
Everlast sell sweet TIG/Plasma for a very reasonable price.
Also, pre-heating cast helps to mitigate weld cracking. In some circumstances, its absolutely necessary.
@2:14 - Yup, easy as pie you say - on the bench. I had to do mine in the dark, on my back, in the snow, in negative 23 degrees, lol. Damn thing shit a bearing seal. :)
308 Stainless? Wow, I was not expecting that... Ford used quite an interesting alloy with that rear end. I will say TIG welding on stainless is a blast! I was just a beginner at it and I was laying down pretty welds. Not sure about corrosion resistance though. But hey, stainless is tougher than mild at least.
Cool video in the 1970s my Dad had a 1967 Mustang Fastback 289 he was always going to junkyards to buy Ford rearends to swap in and out of that Mustang eventually he got the correct gearing he wanted which I believe came out of a LTD my Dad wasn’t a professional trained drag racer but he did time his speeds and times getting onto the same highway on ramps which he timed to get a better speed at keep in mind the Mustang was our family car and as a young boy I thought it was cool to feel him “punch” the accelerator he had also grown up in a very rural area of Upstate New York so when we went to visit my Grandparents the old Man love racing on the rural roads he grew up driving on and knew pretty well he loved that Mustang for those rides and often borrowed a Chevy 2 with a SBC in it my Grandfather used as his daily driver that one had a 3 on the Floor and could leave rubber in all 3 gears my Dad would say put on your seat belt and we go out and haul ass for a while the coolest Ford rear modification I know of was a guy I know took one and put it into a old Ferrari he bought with a blown engine and installed all Ford running gear he wanted to keep the Ferrari rims on the car so he machined the two axles to fit into the Ford rear ironically over 35 years later the car was trying to be put back to factory specs under its newest ownership and that guy was tracked down for any input on original parts many of which he did know of the whereabouts or who he sold them to apparently that specific car had some historical significance to Ferrari collectors and he was dibbed the guy that tried to ruin the car his take was completely different as he bought a non running car , made it run ,and drove it for years without the high maintenance costs associated with the brand BTW the guy is my Uncle and he is a West Point graduate and retired Aerospace Engineer u,u.S. retired AirForce and Commercial Pilot he did the machining himself on his Lathe in his home
That's awesome
I like to use some steel angle scribe an index line along the tube before i cut, makes it real easy to line up the tube when its time to weld it up
I rebuilt a many of these. I worked at the city garage in Mobile AL. We worked on all of the city's cop cars.
Freakin love the videos. I just applied for my first LLC. The info you provide has been priceless. Thank you sir
Great video, super informative. Your the This Old House informative interesting version of what the car market needs. Small tip for anyone who can’t tape straight for shit like myself, buy a pipe wrap and draw a continuous line around the wrap where you’ll be cutting.
Great directions. Great video. You have a good way with words, too.
There is a lot of wasted time involved in all that measuring to get the cut lines. As far as measuring is concerned, take a piece of wood or steel and place it against the rear end housing lip. Put a scratch mark on it where it meets the outside of the wheel bearing flange and then run it around to check for parallel. Once you're done then measure from the end to your scratch mark and that gives you what you need to know. All that tape work is inaccurate as hell as your tape will flex and the end will move in and out. To mark your cut lines go to any welding supply and ask for a wrap around. You wrap it around the tube and make sure the edges stay inline, make your line and you are done. You can also use a strip of gasket paper as long as one side is a factory edge (wrap around's are made out of thick gasket paper). The other method would be to get a wheeled pipe cutter for 4" pipe. Most rental outfits have these for daily rent. Their operation is pretty much self explanatory and would cut these tubes in about 1/2 hour and be perfectly square. I have been fabricating for over 40 years and they would laugh me out of the shop if I did things like this this way.
Awesome finally someone with a proper video!! If you can do a video on how to narrow a ford 9” that would be awesome 😎👌🏻
JM Designz Ford 9 inch?
JM Designz basically the same way
Welding Junkie yea bcz i have some ford 9” housing that need to get cut
JM Designz ah gotcha I was confused. Forgive my ingnorance but why would one narror a rear end? To install it in something different?
Welding Junkie yes the 8.8 is offset 3 inches to one side
I have an old lincoln G8000 that I have a miller suitcase wirefeeder hooked to, and an antique profax spoolgun for aluminum both of those feeders can push a clean bead with SS wire, 4043 or 5356 alum., with either CC or CV, and I can tig just the same using the CC as well as scratch start my plasma torch....all you need is AMPerage to melt metal and it ultimately doesn't matter to the metal which type of current you use whether AC or DC the metal isnt that picky it will melt practically the same with either it rarely puts up much resistance once you created a contact...
I'm surprised you didn't take the axle tubes out, cut & bevel them on the lathe. Mount them between centers on a rotary welding fixture and have near perfect results. Seems like it would have been much more accurate. Drill & ream 3 locating pin holes before removing the tubes. They would go back exactly where they came out.
I agree with being focused on accuracy but a felt tipped sharpie is like 1/4 thick lol.
It would be good if you could cover the fabrication of the 4 link and maybe a video on squaring the axle to the chassis 👍
Nice work, but I have to ask... why not just drill out the slug welds between the tube and the housing, shove the tube out with a porta power, cut the longer tube to match the short tube, press it back in, then weld everything up?
I’m just starting to look at axle narrowing. What about using a piece of heavy paper that’s exactly the cut amount , wrap it around and then spray paint over it. Should leave a perfect tube behind?
Same thing for chopping out 3", if you want a wider axle cut and put in 3" on the other side to match the length and use 2 left side axles. But what tube thickness and diameter for that section. Jeeps often do an 8.8 swap but they are a bit narrow.
If I was doing these axles I would make a jig clamp to fit around it and put into it a marker holder and a bit to hold a plasma cutter as well.
Great video...... Got enough welders back there man? DAMN!
I would imagine placing the weld outside the suspension mounting point would be best. That way you eliminate twisting loads on the weld under accel
🤔 One less force to contend with.👍
Your calm tone is awesome.. “ you line needs to be exactly the same.. “ no shit” and yes you do neeeeed to mention that.. lol excellent work** you da man!!!
14:05 good EDIT, welds tube to centre, immediately drapes arm over the heat affected zone...lol
Man those welds cool down fast
Alexander Coburg which rear did this car come out of
Good video. Very informative. But if you go through the trouble to narrow an 8.8 then use the 9 inch ends. Easier to do and cleaner.
Every low budget street car, hot rod , even some low 11 second car in Mexico has a set up just like that, i did mine for about 120 dollars with disc brakes, posi traction, and 3.73 gears all from the scrap yard.
U CAN USE YOUR MEASURING TAPE AND WRAP IT AROUND THE TUBE WITH BOTH ENDS TOUCHING THEN MARK YOUR LINE, IT WILL BE STRAIGHT
Ive done a BUNCH of 8.8 axle swaps, gear swaps, bearing swaps. And definitively the best tool for removing AND installing the C-clip/axle retainer is a small magnet. I have a el cheap-O little inspection mirror with a magnet at the end of the telescoping handle that has seen more rears than ..... well you get it. lmRo! Get er Done! Oh $hit! Also, what brand of paint pen do you use?????
Safety nazi here. Take it from a guy that has tenitus so bad it keeps me up at night, wear hearing protections. In ear, over ear, something. Not for me. Not for OSHA. Do it for yourself. Great video. Thank you for posting.
Robert Palmore put the fan on and soundscapes or ambient radio. Works wonders.
Robert Palmore I have an app on my phone called "White Noise Lite". It's got all kinds of different sounds you can choose from. Audiologist at the VA recommended it to me. Seems to work pretty well.
Derek Shrewsbury
I'll have to check that out. I have a CPAP that does give a little white noise but I'll look into anything.
Second saftey nazi here! I have done all this grinding before just fine with the guard left on my grinder!!! guard off you slip your hand goes in the cutting wheel, and it continually sprays you with sparks!!
Me too! Once you have the hiss and crickets in your head all the time, you wish you had done more to prevent tinnitus. Shop noise will add up over the years and then...
I used to use a pipe cutter for this and then debur and bevel and done deal. This is the hard way.
Is that diff supposed to be bone dry? 1:20
Under the title of, "To each their own." When needing a continuous measurement in this case, 9 from the housing, I like to cut a wood dowl or scrap metal rather than use a tape measure and mark off the end of that.
For the second cut he measured off the tape he put down for the first cut instead of off the sleeve of the pumpkin.
I checked your site for the soup recipe for degreasing the diff. Can you tell me where it is on the site? Thanks.
cable tie or hose clamp makes a perfect line
Why not just use a large pipe cutter to scribe a line around the tube?
Mucho hombre , breathes grinding metal and abrasive dust without any problems. Let me know how you are doing in 20 years please.
dude has a wall of welders behind him, one them has to be a plazma cutter also?
How much would a job like this cost at an axle shop? I was quoted $500 at one shop in Oregon.
How have your Everlast welders held up?
Hi. Great video. I have a question, however. Where can I purchase one of these 8.8s for a 98 S10 now or soon? Thanks.
Forgive my ignorance, cutting down 1 side only, does this mean that at factory width the prop shaft was on an angle from the gearbox centreline to the diff centre
Can you tell me what is the shortest you can make a 8.8 ? Guess what I need to ask is what are the shortest axels you can get?
How about a pipe cutter there ones big enough and you can check your mesurement after one reverlution
Was this for an s10? Planning on doing mine
14:13 HAHA I was like "That Gotta be hot!"
OMG I cringed when he put his hands on the axle like that.... Obviously there was a LONG break in there lol..
i did the same thing.
TRX VLOGGER Isi
He did that on purpose. No accident he happen to place wrists on exactly both welds.
He's messing with you
What application would someone want to narrow an 8.8 for? I thought it was just us jeep guys who used them, and we don't narrow them...
Can the same thing be done to make a axle wider
Did you preheat the diff housing or should I say is that a good idea?
i personally would preheat it
i recently truseed my dana 44s and preheated the housings to 400f worked well.. if i had a bigger torch i might goto 500-550 degrees as the housing just had more mass than my truss and the welds tended to undercut the truss before biting into the housing best
that being said the axle and housing welds will never fail theyre way overkill now
Seems like a piston ring compressor would help you make the lines for cutting. Maybe
Could you make a jig with the axle shafts in place and essentially make the entire thing a lathe? Cut everything perfectly?
@@jeremylakenes6859 Yeap..or a regular worm clamp.
this is all great. But where the hell do you get the shorter axle rods from?
When I was learning to weld. I had made dangerous accident. I burn a hole into my body with welding rod. I flipped the rod hot side towards my body and it put a hole into lower tummy. 6 inches into myself.
Theodore Sears holy chit
no u are correct u want 309 stainless is the proper way plus pre heat and post heat
Smoke Wrench, good one.
For the axle tube to center casting has anyone used bronze, seems to me it would fill the bill nicely.
What I don't understand, is why in the hell does the damned thing come offset to begin with? Sorry, not a lot of experience with rear end housings, but it doesn't really make sense. Was the transmission offset to begin with or something?
preheat the cast and let it all cool slow.
309l Is designed to weld dissimilar metals. Like ss to carbon.
I use a Ridged Pipe cutter that gets the cut square and perfect easy peazy!
If your Gunna do all that, why not just use a 9in? Much stronger and strange makes some awesome stuff for them;) but awesome stuff. Nobody has the grit to do this anymore! Love it
Because a 9 inch is not an 8.8.
And nine inchers arent cheap. and niether 9" diffs
Awesome video
Subscribed💪🏻
Great vid - but that sway bar math at the end was a bit more confusing than it had to be (why figure out the distance across the diff at all when you’ve gone to great lengths before to show how that’s not working anyway?)...
It's demonstrating a process with problems. Showing only the solution does not show the lesson.
You have at least 10 welders\ plasma cutters behind you. wow. Do you use them all??
Tim Z Sure do. I switch up regularly and they all get used in our TIG Classes here at the shop.
Don’t worry about the particulates. You breathed them all in😳
Hey they only cause cancer in the state of california!
What is the reason you want to narrow an axle?
Normally wider wheels
Is there any way to use a rear axle like this on a Toyota truck and come out with the same wheel pattern or do you have to stick with 8 lugs. I'm wanting to do a v8 engine swap in my old v6 and will upgrade the rear end at the same time, but wanted to still be able to use stock wheels and or have them match the fronts. How can this be done?
While watching Justin measure the cut lines for sectioning the left side of the axle, I wondered if a plumber's tubing cutter would help. One side of the C-Clamp shaped tool has a pair of rollers to hold the tool perpendicular to the pipe and the other side has a sharp cutting wheel. If it works, it could cleanly cut off the pieces. Even if it doesn't, it would make marks around the axle tube that is perpendicular to the axle line. That might be more accurate and less easily erased than a series of ink marks and tape.
Grainger sells one made by Rigid that goes up to 2 ⅜"
www.grainger.com/product/RIDGID-Manual-Cutting-Action-Tubing-4CW57
Reed makes a hinged cutter that will cut steel, ductile iron and cast iron up to schedule 100, which is 0.594 inches on an eight inch pipe.
www.reedmfgco.com/en/products/cutters-and-cutter-wheels/hinged-cutters/
Yes this works great, I have a larger rigid pipe cutter i think goes up to 6'' and makes very square cuts as long as the pipe is relatively round. Works great for drive shafts too. The larger units are expensive tho, but they come up every now and again on CL.
I used a pipe cutter similar to the one you describe that was made to cut lollicolumns for building when I remanufactured 8.8" diffs that were sold by my company for use in Cobra kit cars, some were even sold directly to Factory 5 for their kits.... 😎
I had an 8.8, stripped it down, axles re-drilled to a 5x5 to match the front rotors, put in the 1960 C10 and the drive shaft hit the frame crossmemeber tunnel! @#$%^! Sold it, built a 10 bolt corp GM, now I want my 8.8 back after seeing you narrow it. JEEZ!! I could have done that!! Since I don't have a TIG (yet) could I mig the tubes in the center?
wouldn't be easier to use a scarfing tip instead of all that grinding?
Hey, Thanks for this video, I might just be doing the same thing for an 8.8 for a 57 chevy pickup in the future (depending on if I decide to get an independant rear end or not. Hey, what I wanted to ask is, Where do you buy / how do you make your assembly table you have there in the foreground? Thanks awesome work dude
Could you weld the tubes to the housing with SilBro?
Ford explorer 2002 differential fits ford ranger 2002?
Nice rear end
sorry to let you know that if want to cut the axle leaf spring saddle with the grinder cut off wheel you can I had done it in the past several times and remove it completely you just have to use a smaller wheel
I should be able to do this with a screwdriver, pliers, hacksaw, couple 12v batteries and 3 or 4 filler rods.
Hi justin, i need a suggestion or helpful tip. Im narrowing the same rear axle and i forgot one of the most important steps, the "clocking reference mark". What can i do to get it clocked correctly again?