8.8 swap

[Shran]

My recommendation, IF you have a welder, would be to skip the Ranger axle and find one from an Explorer. 91-94 for drum brakes, 95-01 for discs. If not or you don't want to do any welding or messing with e-brake cables, the one you found should be fine.

You may not necessarily need a driveshaft, you can drill and tap holes in the new axle's flange that will match the bolt pattern on your driveshaft. Just make sure that your slip yoke is not bottomed out or close to it. I should also mention that you will NOT find a factory driveshaft in a newer truck that will fit your truck...they simply were never made because after 89, the transmission were all longer and thus the rear driveshaft became several inches shorter than what you have now.

Now with that said, the u-joints in your current shaft are tiny and do not hold up well to offroad use, and their operating angles get maxed out really fast. I would recommend eventually finding a junkyard rear shaft from an Explorer or a 90 or newer single cab 4x4 Ranger and having it lengthened to fit your application... that way you end up with bigger u-joints that will last a little longer.

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

My recommendation, IF you have a welder, would be to skip the Ranger axle and find one from an Explorer. 91-94 for drum brakes, 95-01 for discs. If not or you don't want to do any welding or messing with e-brake cables, the one you found should be fine.

You may not necessarily need a driveshaft, you can drill and tap holes in the new axle's flange that will match the bolt pattern on your driveshaft. Just make sure that your slip yoke is not bottomed out or close to it. I should also mention that you will NOT find a factory driveshaft in a newer truck that will fit your truck...they simply were never made because after 89, the transmission were all longer and thus the rear driveshaft became several inches shorter than what you have now.

Now with that said, the u-joints in your current shaft are tiny and do not hold up well to offroad use, and their operating angles get maxed out really fast. I would recommend eventually finding a junkyard rear shaft from an Explorer or a 90 or newer single cab 4x4 Ranger and having it lengthened to fit your application... that way you end up with bigger u-joints that will last a little longer.

I wouldn’t say that he won’t find a DS from a newer ranger than a 89 to fit. I took a DS from a 94 4wd extra cab, with an auto trans. The DS was 1” shorter than the 91 4wd l, 4 door explorer DS. I wanna say the explorer DS was 77.5” while the ranger was 76.5”. I put it in my 89 with a 4” lift. Worse case scenario he will just have to take it to a shop and have it shortened.

 

[4x4junkie]

It was 1988 that the manual transmissions became longer (to match that of the automatic).

 

[Shran]

I wouldn’t say that he won’t find a DS from a newer ranger than a 89 to fit. I took a DS from a 94 4wd extra cab, with an auto trans. The DS was 1” shorter than the 91 4wd l, 4 door explorer DS. I wanna say the explorer DS was 77.5” while the ranger was 76.5”. I put it in my 89 with a 4” lift. Worse case scenario he will just have to take it to a shop and have it shortened.

Did your '94 donor not have a 2 piece rear shaft...? Nothing wrong with a 2 piece, just a lot more work to install it with the carrier bearing.

The OP's problem is that his transmission is a couple inches shorter than anything made after 1988 so every driveshaft made after that for a similar wheelbase truck will be too short.

I just shoot for '90 or later because you will for sure have bigger u-joints in everything.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

+1 to the Ranger 8.8 not being that great of an upgrade. You get bigger spider gears which is a weak point of a 7.5 but a locker will eliminate that anyway. You still get the small shafts the same as a 7.5... not great for a locker.

I redrilled the flange on my 31 spline 8.8 and ran the smaller shaft for awhile, it worked for me. I did blow a joint on the highway I guess...

For my std cab longbox I had to get the one piece shaft out of a later extended cab and have it shortened. Used shafts are hard to turn up as few junkyards pull them before they move the vehicle with a payloader and they all get crinked. If I had it to do over again I would have just ordered a custom one from like Tom Woods or something...

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Did your '94 donor not have a 2 piece rear shaft...? Nothing wrong with a 2 piece, just a lot more work to install it with the carrier bearing.

The OP's problem is that his transmission is a couple inches shorter than anything made after 1988 so every driveshaft made after that for a similar wheelbase truck will be too short.

I just shoot for '90 or later because you will for sure have bigger u-joints in everything.

It was a 2 piece. I just took the larger rear section and put it into my 89. It did have the larger U-joint at the axle and the larger flange. But it matched up at the T-case.