This differential is for sale locally, the guy says its a early 9" I say it's a 1966 or older 8" It's just not round enough to be a 9"... The only numbers on the tag I can read is as follows... Line 1 : CL-K3 Line 2 : 25 5BA 803 Hear is a picture, give me your opinion please...
That is an 8 inch housing, early one with the fill plug. 9 inch housings have a protrusion on the back for the larger ring gear.
I thought so too but when I researched 9" diff's I found one that looks just like this 8" (no hump on the case) only difference, it was round not ovel...
Yes, but as far as I can tell the 8" has a defined flat spot on top and bottom and is oval shaped... the 9" has a much smaller flat spot top and bottom and is almost round... Also you can get a socket on all the nuts on the third member... It's amazing how close the 8 and 9" looks, I almost bought it but something told me to do some research first... It's a 8"
X 2, the 57 Ford 9" I pulled from a 66 Stang parts car didn't have a bulge for the ring gear. Looked damned close to an 8" rear.
It had a WAR case center section, making it doubly hard to ID while under the car, sitting in a muddy field. For those who don't know what a WAR case looks like, it looks exactly like an 8" center section, or an "N" case without the "N". I had to take a wild guess when looking this car over before commiting to buyin it. Fortunately the car came with a butt load of extra parts and the rear was indeed a 9". One of the best $350 parts cars I ever bought. Made a good profit on it after selling the parts that I didn't use, Then sold the car minus the 9" rear, for $400
Can't you just simply go with the socket test on the bottom bolts of the carrier and disregard what the housing looks like - I always thought that was a fail safe test
And not if the car it's under is in a muddy pasture with no safe way to get under the vehicle to perform the socket test.
