Bulletproof 7.5"

[gwaii]

I'll just throw this out there...

I've been running a 7.5" with 4.56 gears and locker, with a 4.0 and 35" tires for over 4 years now. Never had a single problem.

gimme 30 seconds with the thing....i'll fix that problem




i sent a few 7.5s to diffy heaven before i just refused to even try driving a rig while it still had one in it.that CHUNK-CHUNK-CHUNK-BANG stuff just got real irritating.

 

[RollinWOT]

Ok well, let's not forget this is going to be mainly my DD about 90% of the time and the other 10% is going to be mild offroad. I really would rather not do a swap if I didn't aboslutely need to. I just want to make it tough enough to take abuseshould the need arise. I realize a lot of guys on here really look down on the 7.5" but for over 130k on the clock and 1 fluid change, it looked prettyo good on the inside. So maybe just C-clip eliminators and a powertrax would be fine?

 

[Surrey]

Ok well, let's not forget this is going to be mainly my DD about 90% of the time and the other 10% is going to be mild offroad. I really would rather not do a swap if I didn't aboslutely need to. I just want to make it tough enough to take abuseshould the need arise. I realize a lot of guys on here really look down on the 7.5" but for over 130k on the clock and 1 fluid change, it looked prettyo good on the inside. So maybe just C-clip eliminators and a powertrax would be fine?

Being a DD all the time is more of a reason to get a 8.8, not less. All you need is to break something, not be able to fix it right away, and not be able to get to where you gotta go for work, life, whatever. 8.8s are a dime a dozen in wreckers, so parts are readily available.

Swapping the axle is really easy to do... Like, oil change-easy damn near.
Besides, is anything worse than spending $500 on upgrading a crappy axle, just to break it?

 

[natmanjoh]

my 89 b2 is sitting dead in the garage cause the ring and pinion blew on my 7.5 and it was strictly a dd, never taken off road. the swap cost around $500 for the axle and dealer install where I live. that's not bad for an axle that'll be more realiable than the 7.5.

 

[RollinWOT]

That's a great point Surry. It seems like I should keep my 7.5" as a spare once I can locate an 8.8" I'll have to get another matching PCP Anodize Blue diff cover for it. So, as an upgrade, my 3.0 will be able to power it? The last thing I need is to have an axle my 3.0 can't power up a mountain road.

 

[4.0B2]

the axle won't change what your 3.0 knows... unless you get a dog of a gear ratio... what's your stock gears?

and why a blue diff cover?? why not take the stock one and weld some armor to it, and paint it blue?? stock, cheap, and stronger??

 

[RollinWOT]

3.73's. Blue so it would match my stripes on the side and because it was a gift and the fact that it also is about 3 times thicker than stock AND I didn't have any spare plate steel at the time.

 

[4.0B2]

i meant for the 8.8 lol

 

[RollinWOT]

AH! Ok, yeah, because I could just get a PCP gear armor. I've had these on several trucks and nothing but good stuff comes from PCP.

 

[RacinNdrummin]

If you treat it nice, the 7.5 will last just fine, its actually pretty stout for its size. I ran my SOHC on the factory 7.5 for months beating the hell out of it on 30" bighorns, and it held up. There are guys with 400hp SVO's that still have the factory 7.5 in them. I had a welded 7.5 in my first ranger (almost 10 years ago) that broke the shitty ass welds on the spiders and still kept on going. Like others have said above, dont throw any money at it, but weld her up and run it til it blows... I think youll be suprised how much abuse the 7.5 actually will take... When it does blow, bang for the buck says explorer axle all the way... its just a narrowed F150 axle...

 

[CountryBoy704]

yupp the 8.8 is definitely worth itbut this does require welding read up in the tech library you have to relocate the spring plates and shock tabs, so if you're REALLY broke the 7.5 will have to do unless you own a welder or know someone who can do it for you

 

[Surrey]

If you treat it nice, the 7.5 will last just fine, its actually pretty stout for its size. I ran my SOHC on the factory 7.5 for months beating the hell out of it on 30" bighorns, and it held up. There are guys with 400hp SVO's that still have the factory 7.5 in them. I had a welded 7.5 in my first ranger (almost 10 years ago) that broke the shitty ass welds on the spiders and still kept on going. Like others have said above, dont throw any money at it, but weld her up and run it til it blows... I think youll be suprised how much abuse the 7.5 actually will take... When it does blow, bang for the buck says explorer axle all the way... its just a narrowed F150 axle...

400hp? Most Ranger trannies wont even survive under that much power, let alone a weak axle...

30" tires are pretty small, not exactly something to rave about... and it seems the 7.5 survivability is largely determined by the driver. If you are super nice on the skinny pedal, it can run 35" tires for some time. Others who are not so nice to the skinny pedal have broken 'em with stock tires, that measure about 27.5".

Kinda sounds like the first time your 2wd gets stuck real bad, you are going to give it too much gas and break something.
That being said, the weak point seems to be the spider gears, so if you weld it up well, that eliminates that problem... But instead introduces the weakness of the ring gear. The 8.8" Ranger axle improves on both of those aspects, (spider and ring gears) but the axle shafts are still the same. The 8.8" Explorer axle comes with 30% larger axle shafts, which basically means if you break it, you deserve to be stuck in the mud.

 

[4.0B2]

8.8 w/ detroit is the way to go.. eliminate the weakstuff in the 8.8 but... that's expensive! lol.. i just know that most budget builds start w/ a d35/8.8 swap... there's a reason for that.

 

[RacinNdrummin]

400hp? Most Ranger trannies wont even survive under that much power, let alone a weak axle...

30" tires are pretty small, not exactly something to rave about... and it seems the 7.5 survivability is largely determined by the driver. If you are super nice on the skinny pedal, it can run 35" tires for some time. Others who are not so nice to the skinny pedal have broken 'em with stock tires, that measure about 27.5".

Kinda sounds like the first time your 2wd gets stuck real bad, you are going to give it too much gas and break something.
That being said, the weak point seems to be the spider gears, so if you weld it up well, that eliminates that problem... But instead introduces the weakness of the ring gear. The 8.8" Ranger axle improves on both of those aspects, (spider and ring gears) but the axle shafts are still the same. The 8.8" Explorer axle comes with 30% larger axle shafts, which basically means if you break it, you deserve to be stuck in the mud.

I didnt say one thing about a ranger transmission, I was talking about Mustang SVO's....

Do you know what a bighorn tire is? Its a fairly agressive MT type tire with a fairly soft compound, and on pavement, would hook up behind the SOHC, so regardless of whether or not I was "Raving" about having 30's on a 7.5, it still saw near V8 torque through a 5-speed and 3.73 gears, on a sticky compound, and held up just fine...

Your making the 7.5 sound way worse than it is. No doubt an 8.8 is a far better axle, But Im sorry to say, unless your running 4.56's and Its welded, the 7.5 isnt going to just break by stepping on the gas, especially behind a 3.0, its gonna take more than that....

Besides, All I was saying was run it til it breaks, then upgrade, what was wrong with my point?

 

[RollinWOT]

Yeah, I mean I've run mildly aggressive offroad trails with the stock 7.5" and of course got some spinnage on one wheel, but everything seems ok. I plan on doing the 8.8" swap once I can source an Exploder or maybe I'll just cannibalize one of my F-150's.