1977 Versaille to 1972 Grabber?

Strange is telling me that I need to have tapered bearings to use these axles. Not mandatory but recommended especially for a street car. I used these axles in my other maverick without tapered bearings and I didn't have a problem (that's what Strange sold me back then). Plus I don't think any versailles came with tapered bearings. It doesn't seem like there's anything special about my axles that would prevent me from using them with a regular big bearing end housing and explorer brakes. Special spacers would be needed from strange or elsewhere but aside from that I think they will work.

 

But, by using a tapered bearing and race, you would then need to supply it with gear oil which means that you would need to have the room for a full seal at the very end of the tubes - not just an o-ring

 

True, Strange said the seal is on the outside of the bearing somehow. I don't really understand that one but they said I need to look at my axles just outside the bearing and see if I have a seal surface. I still don't know where the seal is going to go on the housing with the brake backing plate there.

 

John, you may also want to do a search of the forum for Explorer rear brakes because Frank did this conversion on his Maverick. With a little bit of re-vamping, it became somewhat of a bolt on assembly. He did it on an 8 inch rear so I can't say what would carry over to the 9 inch

 

Never mind, I see it here in this drawing that the guy from Strange emailed me. It's not labeled but it's there. I'm not sure if it is part of the bearing or seperate.

 

I do plan on doing the explorer brake swap on this rear.