Rewiring the round about way

Thanks Buzzman. Your illustration is helpfull. Since I have a separate bulb for rear turn signals. I will be running two extra wires. My brake wires will most likely bypass the turn signal switch since those are not used for turning lights.
Does that make sense?

Still haven't found where those wires are supposed to go, it's got to be somewhere around here.




Sat the rear end on the ground today to find the angles for the 8.8 I'll be using to replace the old axle. Got the yoke sat at a perfect 90 degree angle to get the reading for the spring perches. Here's what I got. Looks to me the perches are set at 6.80 degrees.

Went down to the auto salvage yard about a 1/2 down the road today to see about a late 90's Ford Explorer 8.8 rear end. The guy looked it up and said he had one and it was about to be sent to the crusher, come to find out it is a year 2000 Explorer with disc brakes and low miles (I got to look at the speedometer). He was going to pull the cover this afternoon so he could count the teeth so I would know what it is and then pull the rear end for me to pick it up tomorrow, all this for the low price of $150 which will be lower after I trade in a trailer full of scrap.

Pictures after I get it home to the garage.

Cool. Looking forward to seeing this documented. I've been toying with the idea of an 8.8 swap for my truck. The question that keeps coming up in my mind is load carrying ability. I don't understand what an 8.8 is capable of carrying.

As for your wire dilemma... Good luck findin those wires. They're like leprechauns.

They use the 8.8 in the current-generation F150's, so they ought to be up to handling the GVW ratings of these old Internationals.

Picked up the donor Ford 8.8 today. Ended up hauling down enough scrap metal to pay for more than half the $150. Turns out to be a 3.73 gear ratio with limited slip. That is one heavy rear end, had to get the tractor out with the boom pole to lift it out of the truck and sit it right inside the shop door. Now the fun begins.

Sweet, you got the swaybar too.
Bill

Just to clarify, not all 8.8's are the same. The Mustang and Tbird versions were smaller tube diameters, and thus lighter weight overall. Not a good candidate for hauling. The F150 version is beefier, but also wider than any truck pre-72, and is drum brakes and 5x5.5 lug pattern. The optimal 8.8 is that from the Ford Explorer from later 1990's. They had the thicker tubes and bigger diameter bearings, came with either disks or drums, and is the correct width for most applications. The FX4 Ranger's have the same rear as the Explorer, but are typically 4.11 gears. The common Explorer gearing is 3.73 with the limited slip. The pinion is also offset to the passenger side 2.19" give or take.

Got the Explorer axle cleaned up a little by removing all the wires, cables and hoses for now. Just have to cut off and grind the old mounts away, I am going to try and save the brackets for the sway bar.



Learned one thing by looking up parts for this rear end, make sure if you get one of these axles to get the yoke adapter. They are pricey, luckily I did get it.



The yoke adapter.



For now I am going to use the stock springs so I can get a roller frame. I need to move this project over to the new garage. After I get it moved I will be changing over to a four link suspension.

I have been looking all over for spring perches and so far I am being told I will need to grind another 1/4" off the 3" perches because finding a perch made for 1.75" leaf springs and a 3.25" axle is like finding hen's teeth. Getting a perch for 1.75" X 3.00" is easy. The spring plate to mount above the leaf spring is also hard to find, I emailed KCSprings and was told I would have to have it made by a specialty trailer metal shop. After more hours of internet searching I did finally find them at Barnes4WD, they are made for the early Jeep. I also bought the 5/8" U Bolts from Barnes4WD.

http://www.barnes4wd.com/U-Bolt-Plates-Early-Jeep-CJ-Series-M38-Pair_p_99.html#.UyqB-ju1iBQ.facebook

Or you go with a blank U Bolt plate.
Blank Spring plate
http://www.rustysoffroad.com/jeep-suspension/jeep-leaf-spring-accessories/jeep-universal-leaf-springs-u-bolts-lift-blocks/rustys-u-bolt-plate-blank-pair.html

Cool. Looking forward to seeing this documented. I've been toying with the idea of an 8.8 swap for my truck. The question that keeps coming up in my mind is load carrying ability. I don't understand what an 8.8 is capable of carrying.

Jake, I can tell you they are a lot heavier than the Dana axle I took out. I picked up the Dana and put it on the trailer but this Ford 8.8 I can barely pick up one end. When I brought it home in the back of my truck I had to unload it using the cherry picker on the tractor three point hitch.

Haven't got to work on the truck in a couple weeks, been busy remodeling our bathroom and buying a house in AZ. Got to play this morning and got all the old mounts cut/ground off. Was hoping to save the stock mounts for the sway bar but it was going to interfere with the new shock mounts so I will have to go with an aftermarket sway bar. I can say though them old mounts had some good solid welds, took me two sawzall blades, four cutting disk and four grinding disk to get them smooth to the axle. Time to line everything up and tack weld in the next couple days. Waiting on the new rear leaf spring bushings to arrive, should be here tomorrow. I've been looking for them HB-854 bushings for a while and every place that had them were $3-$7 a piece for a half and you need 12 halves. Found a place in PA. that had them in packets of four, got all the bushings for the rear end leafs springs including shipping for around $17.