I have been working on building a new rear axle for the ranger. The old one is a little bent (probably from hauling a heavy tractor or from putting 2400 lbs of rock in the bed) and I never really liked how the disk brake conversion ended up. It is a full width 31 spline 8.8. Lots of strength. And I did an explorer disk brake swap on it. You can read through the thread, but the disk swap was a little hokey. I had to chop down the backing plate, lots of machining on axle shafts and on the rotors. Here she is in the garage after a bunch of miles:
So I got a truss from artec and new spring mounts and shocks welded on the new housing and almost ready for paint:
I like this truss because it bolts to the pinion. I drilled the holes out to 1/2" because I run a butt load of 1/2" grade 8 stuff on the ranger- and it is always nice for consistency.
Next I did a ton of measuring to try to figure out what I could do to make the brakes work better. Originally, I wanted to keep the custom machined stuff to only the rotors- that way if the shafts were stock I could always find a stock one to replace one I broke. So they have a ton of machining on the rotors. Well unfortunately I ended up having to do some machining on the shafts too. So now they are both custom, and I still had a good amount of clearance problems with the dust shield and the e-brakes. I have been thinking about this a while- and I think the explorers have more axle shaft hanging out of the housing then the broncos and f150s do.
The bearing ends are the same.
Turns out after a bunch of measuring and comparing at the local pick and pull- the explorers- in relation to the housings- have 3/16" longer shafts than the full width axles- making for a ton of extra room for the disk brakes.
I decided to order up a set of Moser Shafts. They are Chromolly and claim 30% strength increase over stock. I can also order all the specs I want to make them play really nice with the explorer brakes. And the only thing that will need to be customized on the rotors is the bolt pattern. Easy enough to do or to have my buddy at the machine shop do. I choose the later. I actually like this setup better because rotors wear- they need turned. My current set needed turned and were out of spec for an explorer- but since they were custom they let me go ahead and turn them. With these shafts and the lack of weight in the rear of the ranger most of the time I dont think I will ever have a broken custom shaft to worry about. Here are the specs of she shafts I ordered in case you dont want to fight the brakes and want it to work right too. This includes 3/16" longer shafts, smaller hub pilot flange, smaller axle outer flange.
C31CST - C31CST - Custom Length C-Clip 31 Spline Axles (1-PAIR)
TYPE OF REAR END: 8.8" FORD
BEARING SEAT DIAMETER:: 1.618"
DRIVER SIDE "C" (OVERALL AXLE LENGTH): 33 5/16"
PASSENGER SIDE "C" (OVERALL AXLE LENGTH): 31 3/16"
HUB PILOT ("A"): 2.772"
BOLT PATTERN: 5 X 5 1/2" (FORD)
STUD TYPE: .685" KNURL PRESS-IN
2ND BOLT PATTERN:: NONE
AXLE FLANGE DIAMETER ("J"): 6 1/2"
TYPE OF BRAKES/MANUFACTURES PART NUMBER: Ford Explorer 2001 disk
TYPE OF DIFFERENTIAL/MANUFACTURE:: ARB Air Locker
AXLE FLANGE TO AXLE FLANGE ("D"): 65 3/8"
HOUSING END TO HOUSING END ("E"): 60 3/16"
DRIVER SIDE HOUSING END TO PINION CENTER ("F") (NOT MEASURED THROUGH TUBES!): 28 3/8"
PASSENGER SIDE HOUSING END TO PINION CENTER ("G") (NOT MEASURED THROUGH THE TUBES!): 31 13/16"
I ordered up a kit of timken bearings and I have had an ARB on the shelf for a year or so for this 8.8. That will be next. I am going to reuse my yukon 5.13s. They don't have but about 30K miles or so and are not noisy. I'll put in all new bearings for peace of mind.
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