1983 Ranger 8.8 Rear Upgrade Questions

[Motorsport126]

Hey all. There are a lot of great 8.8 forums and posts here but i can't find the information I'm looking for. I recently purchased an 83 Ranger with a 302. It looks to have a factory 7.5 axle housing but has no tag. I haven't 'gotten on it' yet because I'm afraid to get stranded. So here's what i need to know: What year Rangers have an 8.8 rear end that can i take the rear housing out of and bolt it straight in to my 83? I'm not looking for an Explorer rear swap or even care if its even a 'one wheel peel'. I'm just trying to get ANY 8.8 axle assembly that will 'plug and play'. I'll worry about getting an aftermarket differential carrier with gears and axles later. Also would my leaf springs need to be changed? The axle is mounted under the springs but I'm curious if they need to be specifically from an 8.8 equipped Ranger. Thanks for reading!

 

[scotts90ranger]

That's a whole ball of wax... in all honesty the 7.5 and 8.8 used in Rangers are the same strength so unless you're making high power (over 250ish, someone else can give more experienced numbers) I wouldn't worry as the 5L mustangs had the same 7.5 that you have now... The ONLY advantage the Ranger 8.8 has over the 7.5 is the bigger ring gear, which isn't the weak point... they have the same diameter cross pin which is more of a weak point and still have small spiders. When you update to the Explorer 8.8 you get bigger cross pin and spiders as well as 31 spline axles instead of 28 spline...

If you're dead set on a 8.8 you'll want to watch for a '90-92 Ranger with a 4L engine as they're guaranteed to have a 8.8 of the same width as yours and will bolt right in aside from your rear driveline which the flange has a different bolt pattern since that changed in '90 so they could use a 1310 U joint instead of the smaller 1210? or whatever that they used before...

 

[tjm73]

The 7.5 and the 8.8 do not have the same strength. The 7.5 was dropped from the Mustang V8 cars in 1985 because they could not take the torque. The ring gear and/or the carrier would fall. The axles are actually the same however in Mustang 7.5 and 8.8 axles. They interchange. Same with Ranger 7.5/8.8 axles.

All bolt in '90-'92 Ranger 8.8 axles will be 28 spline. If you are open to having an 8.8 narrowed, you can get any 8.8 from a '93-'11 truck and have long side cut 2-7/8" so it uses two equal length axles from the short side. This will net a rear axle that is about 7/8" narrower than stock on your truck. There are A LOT more '93-'11 8.8's to pick from. Some have 28 spline axles and some have 31 spline axles if your engine is extra spicy.

All 2010-2011 trucks had rear disc brakes but they used two year only acle shafts that the aftermarket doesn't seem to support. So you could get easy disc brakes but axles will be used or custom. For now anyway. Unless someone starts making them but that's unlikely at this point since the trucks are 15 years old at this point. What it tells me is they don't break so no aftermarket solution is needed.

 

[scotts90ranger]

They're not "the same strength" for sure otherwise they wouldn't have made them, it's just that you're not going to break one all willy nilly like... the only time I had an issue with a 7.5" I was pulling a garage over in low range with the hubs unlocked and the rope broke, I broke a tooth off a spider gear, after changing the spiders I did a tractor pull with the turbo 2.3L a few years later pulling a 30k pound sled at WOT in 1st low with around 200hp...