Ranger 8.8/7.5 swap

[William Spitzer]

well, i would go 9", honestly though i dont think i'd ever break the 7.5, i dont do much hard wheeling, and i only do a little bit of light pulling, the most bennifical thing in my eyes would be how much cheaper gears and lockers are for the 8.8, and l/s would be the ultimate find

[BRONCONUT]

Fairly cheap if you ask me, you could probably regear front and back for around $500 if you install them yourself.

[William Spitzer]

i was orginally looking at getting a 7.5 lockright, but i figured for $400 one would cost i could save $200-$300 and pull a junkyard axle and bolt it in and go

[brinker88]

good luck finding a narrow width 9"

[William Spitzer]

just got back from the scrapyard

was that a factory color?

first junkyard i stopped at, found a 3.73 limited slip 8.8 in a 99 ranger so, im gonna go back tomorrow probably and ask how much he wants for it, what would be a good price to pay for it? anything i need to look out for?

[brinker88]

I thought you were looking for an axle with disc brakes as well? I paid $200 for my Exploder 8.8 with rotors, calipers, e-brake cables,sway bar, 4.10s, and an open carrier (I plan on going with a locker).

A good price for that would be a $100 but I would probably pay $150 if its in good shape.
I know junkyards around here (u pull it) have specials on certain days that axles are only $50 no matter what axle.

[yodaman1151]

Pick'n'pull here in Portland only charges like $130 for rear axles... A little more for disc rears though. I payed $200 for my 8.8 explorer disc with 4.10's but thats cuz I searched 5 j/y's and couldn't find one so I had to resort to CL

But that included leafs and swaybars.... She was a COMPLETE axle

[William Spitzer]

i would prefer disc brakes, but the simplicity of just bolting in the ranger 8.8 is what i want for now. and im headed to the junkyard now, we'll see how this turns out.

[William Spitzer]

so, somebody allready got the bed, so heres the axle


now for the bad, 3 teeth on one of the spider geas are damaged,



and one of the teeth on the ring gear is chipped,


he said he wanted $175 for it, is it worth that? is it even worth trying to fix? i have a posi-trac unit for an 8.8 allready, but if i put that in this axle it would have to be set up correct? the more i get into this the better and better a lockright looks.

[brinker88]

Spider gears are $111 from ford for that axle....I just had a set shipped in for a customer last week.

[William Spitzer]

ok, so my dad has a set of spider gears for an 8.8 that be said he'd give me. should i try to get the axle for cheaper? it scares me a little bit, because the truck the 8.8 came out of only has 80,000 miles on it. is the rest of the axle more than likely ok? what about the clutches? if i get the axle i'll get superlift shocks it has on it, as well as lift blocks that are also on it, im just at a loss for what to do.

[scotts90ranger]

it's fine, when the spider gears look like that it's from the clutches being worn out to the point where the spider gears can spin without the side gears turning. I would get a clutch kit for that axle and call it good, if the chip on the gear tooth is just on the outer edge it's fine, it only matters if it's in the gear mesh.

Hose the inside out with brake clean or starting fluid to get all the gunk out.