On my way to junk yard tomorrow and I want know what Ford vehicles out there are going to have 9" rears in them; or should I just stick with my 8" rear?
Unless you have some serious horsepower stay with your 8 inch and spend the money on other areas that need attention or maybe just spend it on gears and a locker unit for the 8 inch, but if you must have the 9 inch look for 57-59 cars or 65-66 Mustang (good luck there) or get one from just about any car with a 5x41/2 bolt pattern and 31 spline axles and have it shortened (good luck there as well) 57 and 58 Edsels are a good candidate as well
also look at granadas some of them have the 9" and they bolt up and are a total of1" wider than the mav rearend.
75-81 Granada Monarch Versillies Not the easiest find, but the best bet you got. Bolt right in... Be prepared to swap in a lower geared chunk. These cars had very high gears... 2.50:1 range. You can also do what Ford and Shelby did for the 65-66 Stangs: Whack the axle tubes off the center of the 8" housing, and weld the tubes back onto a 9" housing center (easy find!). Then if you use a 28 spline chunk, you pop your 28 spline axles right back in. 8" and 9" use the same 28 spline axles. $200 operation here locally. Then throw some Crown Vic rear discs on for good measure! Good luck Dave
8.8? At the risk of starting a "which is best" war, and unless you just stumble on a deal for a 9" (good luck, all the brand X guys bought them up), may I recommend the 8.8? Gazillions of them in junkyards, many with the posi in them, some of them with 3.55s. Yes, you'll have to put perches on them. Did I forget cheap and strong?
Huh? Actually the 8" that came out of my Mav is 50" backing plate to backing plate. The 8.8 in my 88 Mustang is 53".
Yellow75, Does the 57 9" bolt right into the 71 maverick? I seen an add where I can get a 65-66 9" housing for around 300.00. let me know
I had to move the perches to install the '58 9" in my '74 Mav. Not a big deal. The overall width for the '58 rear is a little over an inch narrower than the Mav 8".
the 57 and 66Mustang are bolt-ins but it is narrow for the Maverick / Comet. I Think the '59 and 67 Mustang are better fits.
Not sure what you had, but the 57-59 Ford, 65-66 Stang, and 75-81 Granada rears are all the same width. They are all also wider than the Maverick rear... 1.25" total, or .75" per side. They are the narrowest 9" rears made by Ford and Ford never made a 9" as narrow as a Maverick 8". All of those 9" rears bolt in a Mav without moving anything. If you got a narrower rear and had to move anything for mounting, then you got a rear that was previously modded OR out of some variation of car that I have no knowledge of. Concerning the 67-70 Stang/Cougar rears mentioned... They are nearly 2" per side wider. If you are comfortable using narrower tires or getting custom rims with more backspacing than usual, they bolt right in and are an option. Seen it done. However, many folks are particular about getting as much tire under the car as possible, OR have their rim package already worked out, OR may not want to be limited on rim choice due to extra backspacing needed... FWIW: 71-73 Stang rears bolt right in, however they need roughly 7" backspace on a Maverick! This is cool if you want late model Stang rims on your car. Perfect fit. If that is not what you want though, that rear is too wide.
Only thing about the truck and van rears is the large wheel bolt pattern. Either have to run wheels with the large pattern on the rear or have the axles redrilled for the Maverick pattern, or use other axles. Probaly way too wide to use stock anyway, unless you like your tires sticking out of the fenders a foot or so. Would be fine if you narrowed them and used aftermarket axels...
