When I bought my 9" it was from a guy in San Jose with a small wrecking yard of mainly 60's F100 stuff. He had 5 rear ends that he swore were all from 65 F100's....there was a mix of ones that looked like yours, and ones that looked like this:



Also note...I have read that one of the characteristics of a 9" is that you can't get a socket on all of the bolts...for a couple you'll need an open end wrench.

Looks like you found a $50 Ford 9"

Dan

 

thanks for the the input, yesterday I took the case off it so i will do a count on it today, looking at kevinstangs site the bolts are the right size on the case but then when you get to the housing the flange thatholds the brake plates it would be a small due to the shape but the boltswere 3/4 not 9/16 making it a large, so yeah I think a count is probly y best way to go about it

 

yeah this guy said it came off his 56 f100 , and had it on advertised on c.list as "56 f100 rear end" not "ford 9" not many want the original axle but i looked at it anyways and looked like a 9er to me so I bolted on it without thinking ! the only bolts I had to use a open end on were the two on the very bottom of case and the four that holds the brake plate to the axle flange

 

ok so I'll raise a question... from the master guide here
1953 - 1956 F100 Rear End Selection and Rear Suspension Lowering .: Articles
the "goldie locks" rear end swap is a "57-72 9 inch from a 1/2 ton truck". Was a 9" used in '56, or were those some pre 9" something else?
I took every single tag from this site:
Ford Rear Axle Assembly Identification - Page 01 - FORDification.com
and put em in an XL spreadsheet, then sorted out all the 8.75 and 7.75 and 8 and etc - everything not a 9".... the trimmed list has no 1956 anything in it. (in fact it looks like no tags used or kept track of before 1963 - though the lack of documentation maybe related to the lack of firewall stamping documentation, etc - major loss of records around 1965)

My question, do you suppose that Ford didn't even make 9" until 1957 (Kevin Stang page also says "...around the '57 model year...")

Possibly you have a 8.75 in an early case or some such other variant... hate to say it, but time to open it up and measure the pinion gear and all.. from the documentation (now) I tend to believe it wont be an actual 9"

clean up the tubes and look for stampings on the tubes as well, probably wont find any... let us know what you find.

P.S. even if it isn't a true 9" you still have a set of good brakes, drums, etc right - quite a steal for $50 - and you can find 9" in the junkyard a plenty.

 

so I measured the ring gear across the backside not teeth side and its 9" ..if I measure on the teeth side then its 8 3/4 which side would I go by?

 

I was thinking the same thing the case is marked c7aw-E which is the standard case and someone put it in a different housing?

 

I'm fairly sure you measure on the flat side, (which makes sense cause a very low tooth gear would get real hard to get an accurate measurement on the tooth face) but honestly - never measured one, everything done by eyeball comparing to one in my other hand. Time for someone who has one apart and can measure or knows for sure. I doubt a 8.75 would be bigger than 8.75 on any dimmension - so a 9" it sounds.

 

Ah, the C7AW-E cleanches it for me, that is a 9" housing.. since people tend not to do dumb things like put small weak gears in big case (when a junkyard has hundreds of right size gears) - chances are you got a 9"... What is the tooth count on both ring and pinion?

 

the housing throws me off it look exactly like the one on kevinstangs page where it shows axle tube measurements looks like the grenada?? as soon as my wife gets out of the shower im gonna head into the garage and get a count .....might be here awhile though

 

depending on the transmission gears some ratios could end up highly desired and some could be worthless... No matter the tranny I don't think I would go below 3.00, Ford made stuff down in the 2.xx range - not useful to manual trans trucks.

The most sought after here seems to be around 3.50 (slight lean towards fuel economy) and 3.70 (don't have to downshift on a hill)... I got a 3.00 and consider it a mistake... I went with what was the best shape, not what was the right gear - in hindsight I should have went with 3.50.

While you got it apart, count the splines - not that you need it now, but if you ever consider swapping center sections, adding a posi or traction, etc .. just info you will need and pulling it apart later means loosing a bunch of oil.

 

well looks like r.g is 44 and p.g is 16 = a 2.75 has a 28 splines now the big question is can I swap out those gears with bigger ones and get the 31 spline proby think about a 3.70 ? should I just use the 28 slines?

 

Oh and i saw incorectly on the numbers inside the case its not c7aw-e its c7aw-g and then looks like theres a 39 after that but i cant find nothing with that 39 on it so looks like its the bigger bearings too not sure if thats a good thing or not?

 

unless you are drag racing every weekend and worried about shearing an axle he 28 v. 31 spline is a non-issue. There is aftermarket support for both of them solid.

What I am doing (and exactly what I advise you to do)... start junkyard hunting for a 3.50 or 3.70 locker. If you are really happy with an open spool, then I know someone who has a 3.50 open - Ross here on the board.

I threatened to post this several times and just needed the push to finish cleaning it up. The XL sheet I mentioned in post #19... use this as a guideline for doing the junkyard hunting:

www.brainsbivouac.com/cars/1948/Tech/Ford 9 inch Rear Axle Master Database.xls

 

wheeelpp... I was looking closer at it and noticed I had measurements backwords the smaller diameter was on the flat side and larger was on the teeth side... and the more and more I look at it and measure that ring gear it could be a 8 3/4 " @#$% .. so I called speedway and they said they would "imagine" to measure it from tallest point to point (teeth side). still measures 9" but why cant they say for sure rather than imagine....anyways I think it will work out just fine the axle housing is a half inch bigger than myoriginal axle which is all good same diamiter . I think I will just order new gears and seals and see if it all fits that will tell me if its a true 9er anyways. thanks for the guide I will print it off and add it to my collection. maybe in the future I will get that locker