7.5 axle shafts

[BIIprospector]

I have an 89 BII with a 7.5 rear end. this weekend i snapped an axle shaft on the passenger side. I limped it out of the woods and when i pulled the axle shaft out of my spare 7.5 that came out of an 89 Ranger I compared them and the axle shafts were different lengths? The BII shaft was longer. My BII has .373 gears and my Ranger has .410 gears and i dont know if that has anything to do with it. I am pretty confused on this one and to go even a little further Ipulled the driver side out of the BII and it was longer than the passenger side. Any info would help me greatly thank you

 

[MAKG]

If you look closely at your rear ends, you will find that neither one has a truly centered differential, and the Ranger one is more offset than the Bronco II one, so the driveshaft can clear the midship fuel tank. Bronco II tanks are behind the rear ends so that really doesn't matter.

This is why the axleshaft lengths are different. Actually, it's only on one side since the brake-to-brake distance isn't the same either.

How did you limp out of the woods with a broken semifloating axleshaft? There is nothing holding the wheel on with the axleshaft broken.

 

[AllanD]

The Bronco2 axle assembly is 1-5/8" wider than the Gen1 Ranger rear axle.

ALL of this additional width is in the passenger side.

The DRIVERS side shaft is the same length in either axle assembly.

On ALL Ranger/bronco2's the drivers side axle shaft is longer than
the passenger side.

Now to confuse you even more... the '93-up Ranger axle assemblies are 2" wider
than the Gen1 Rangers and the additional lengthmis equal, 1" per side.

As a note if you get to many U-pull-it junkyards you'll find many
left-side shafts removed from gen1 and Gen2 Rangers and bronco2's,
because these axle shafts are coincidentally the same lenght as the
axle shafts in the "Fox" (1979-1993) Mustangs EXCEPT that
Ranger/bronco2 shafts are five-lug and Mustangs are four lug.
So Ranger/Bronco2 shafts are frequently "pillaged" for use in
converting a Mustang to five-lug wheels.


AllanD

 

[BIIprospector]

Well that answers alot of questions and makes me feel that i am not going crazy. Thank you very much I really appreciate the help

To answer your question I just drove on it and when it walked out till i could see the whole tire in my mirror i stopped, chocked the front tire, high jacked the rear bumper, pushed it back in, let it down and kept driving. i had to do this process about ten times(every 200 feet or so). i had read once of using a high jack to keep it from walking out but I have boggers on offset rims so the "three stage lugs" would have caught the jack and it would not have worked, from now on i will be carrying 2 spare axle shafts.

thanks again for the help

 

[projectnitemare]

Yep I ran into this same deal when I wanted to toss a spare 7.5 under my BII to go to 3.73s instead of 3.45s.

Matt