Howdy all, i recently swapped a 9" axle in my 95 ford bronco. After many re-fabrications it worked. Well due to the recent breaking of an axle shaft i decided to upgrade the shafts to 31 spline and get a full detroit locker instead of the welded open i had. My only delima is im not quite sure exaclty the type of axle i have. I know its a 9" axle from an early model ford. Thats about as far as my knowledge goes on it though. I have all the measurements on the axle tubing and the axle shafts should that be any help and i believe the original shafts. the old shafts are 33.5 inches tall from bottom of axle(stud flange) to the top of the splines. I will say that the axle did not fit under my bronco due to the wide stance of the leaf spring perches, so we cut them off and welded them a little closer in. The local Four Wheel Parts store here in Dallas sold me some shafts but they are to short by a few inches. The million dollar question is what axle do i really have? and did ford make a heavy-duty 9" axle that is wider than the rest, or do i simply have an older model axle? I do have the stock axle identification plate if anyone knows how to decode it. Here is the info on the plate:
WEV - R1 6F1 (top line)
3 00 9 711A (bottom Line)

Any and all help and information on this would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Gary
:-X11

 

I don't know how to decode it, but someone here should be able to.You may want to try posting this in one of the other conferences as well.

 

yea thanks eddy, i posted it on offroad, big bronco's and 1980 trucks. so hopefull one of these will pull up some info for me. thanks for the interest though.
Gary

 

I'm still looking for you. I have found a couple of sites you may want to take a look at, but I haven't been able to decode your axle tag with either. About All I can get from it is that it is a Ford 9" rear with a 3.00:1 ratio, and that the 711A refers to the date built (Year-Month-Week). I couldn't find anything on the WEV-R1 6F1, though.
Anyway, here are a couple of links:

http://www.iit.edu/~petebre/maverick/FoMoCo_rear_ends.html


http://www.ridgenet.net/~biesiade/Fordrears.html

Hopefully these help a little bit!

 

There's a huge variety of 9" 31 spline axle lengths. Ford changed and interchanged the housing lengths (and axle length) for pickups, intermediates and full sized cars over a 30 year period.

The last telephone number I have for Currie Enterprises, king of the hill for Ford 9" rear ends, is 714-528-6957.

 

So, lemme get this straight: you swapped in a 28 spline 9" which is considerably weaker than the stock 8.8???? And you had to move the spring pads? If you had just started w/a 31 spline axle from a '70s truck or 78/9 Bronco it would have bolted right in and been equal in strength to the 8.8.

If I were you I wouldn't bother upgrading your existing axle assy, just get a new 31 spline unit. They can be had all day long for $75 in Denver, and there's more than you can shake a stick at. It will bolt right in, no spring pad mods necessary.

 

Thanks all, the reason i installed the 9" in the first place was to rid myself of the weak and underpowered 8.8 The 9" is a lot stronger of an axle and is alot easier to work on and custom build. Since the 28 spline shafts broke thats why im upgrading to the 31 splines and gettin a new carrier(detroit locker). Since my last posting i have gone to the local Ford parts distributer and got the run down on my axle id plate. Here's the infor i got if anyone is interested. well im not sure the exact codes and what they are, but this is what i got. the axle was used back in 76-78 on Ford E series vans. All the housing and shafts from those years were discontinued in 79. So there is my delima. I had to cut the spring perces cause it was to wide right, you follow, well it was to wide cause it was originally made for a van. No one carries or manufactures these longer axle shafts cause they were out of circut in 79. So now my only solution is to get custom shafts made from Currie, or another like place. Or go get a new housing. I believe what im going to do is the cheap way out and get a new housing since the 3rd members are universal. And this solution should rid me of these axle shaft lenght problems if i get an axle out of a truck. Now my next problem is going to be the pinion angle which will be off set a great deal cause the truck is designed for an 8.8 high pinion axle and my new 9" will still have the perces on there and its a low pinion axle. So like the old 9" ill have to carefully cut these off and set my pinion angle. Done this before but i cant remember- DO THE REAR AND FRONT PINION ANGLES HAVE TO BE THE SAME OR ARE THEY DIFF? Thanks for the help, i really do appreciate it.
Gary

 

Wow, didnt realize it was that long, my bad.

 

I am considering swappping out the 8.8 on my 89 xlt bronco and have not been able able to get the information on the process and what did you do get the ABS sensor to work ?

 

well RescueWacker, funny you should ask this. Cause i did a custom fab job of my own to relocate the VSS sensor. The sensor in the back pumpkin is not a ABS sensor. The only ABS sensors you have are located in the front and get their readings from an ABS ring that is pressed on to the back of your rotor. The sensor in your rear 8.8 is the VSS. Vehicle Speed Sensor. This sensor get its reading from a disk that is pressed on to the ring gear in your axle housing. Well that gear has teeth on it in conjunstion with your gear ratio. My VSS ring had 108 teeth on it and a gear ration of 3.55 Well once the 8.8 was takin from under the truck i removed the sensor and the VSS ring. Without the VSS or the ring your vehicle will have no spedometer or odometer. This will intern throw your shifting off on your transmition and it will shift at different intervals than it should. So what we did was take that VSS ring and mate it to another piece of metel and weld those two together so its not a ring anymore just a round metel disk with teeth on the end. From there we cut the approite about of teeth off for my new gear ratio(4.56) and drilled the approite holes to mount it to the driveshaft flange. The reason we cut teeth off was because we were moving its location from the ring gear to the driveshaft. IF you know anything about gears and axles, you know that your gear ratio is say 4.56:1. that means your driveshaft will spin 4.56 times for every one turn of the axleshaft. This is crutial cause the VSS ring is teethed for the ring gear to be spinning less times than the driveshaft and so forth it has many teeth. Well since the new location will be the drive shaft you need to cut teeth off so its not multipling the speed by 4.56 So once teeth were cut the new redesigned VSS ring was put into place inbetween the driveshaft flange and the CVjoint on the driveshaft.
The only other solution for the VSS sensor is to get a new transfer care. Usually some of the New Process t-cases have VSS in them.
Hope that helps, and i will be writing a tech article on this with more details coming real soon. Once its done i will post a link to in this topic.
Got anymore questions or need anymore help let me know. E-mail is GJcool(No Email Addresses In Posts!)
Gary

 

>Thanks all, the reason i installed the 9" in the first place
>was to rid myself of the weak and underpowered 8.8 The 9"
>is a lot stronger of an axle

If you say so....

>and is alot easier to work on and custom build.

I'll give you that - some of that.

>I had to cut the spring perces cause it was to wide
>right, you follow, well it was to wide cause it was
>originally made for a van.

Most vans had the diffs offset slightly, so you moved the spring perches so the pinion would line up w/the driveshaft? In that case your axle would sit lop-sided under the truck w/one tire sticking out more than the other.............???

>So now my only solution is to get custom shafts made from Currie,

That would be a waste of money.

>Now my next problem is going to be the pinion angle

Why?

>which will be off set a great deal cause the truck is designed for >an 8.8 high pinion axle

8.8's are not high pinion.

>and my new 9" will still have the perces on
>there and its a low pinion axle.

I dunno what donor you're thinking of... Ford put most spring perches in the same place in regards to pinion angle, and just used shims to compensate for shorter wheelbases like Broncos. That's why our Broncos have the huge shims and pickups do not - be it an 8.8 or a 9". I've bolted a 9" straight into an '87 Bronco using the stock shims w/no problems. Now, maybe w/your E4OD and shorter d/s you will have problems.

And granted, the stock shims are problematic in themselves 'cause they always crack. So, if you wanna re-clock the spring pads to eliminate the shims kudos.

> DO THE REAR AND FRONT PINION ANGLES HAVE TO BE THE SAME

If you mean pinion angles at the front differential and rear differential - NO. U can't set pinion angle w/TTB anyway.

If you mean angles for the rear d/s at the t-case vs angle at the pinion - NO. Since you should have a rear cv (double cardan) you want the pinion to point 1-2 degrees below the d/s. You can't do anything about the angle in the double cardan, it is what it is (unless it binds).

 

>I am considering swappping out the 8.8 on my 89 xlt bronco
>and have not been able able to get the information on the
>process and what did you do get the ABS sensor to work ?

Rebelford doesn't realize your '89 is different. His answer to your question applies only to newer rigs, either '92 or '93 and up (can't remember). Your VSS is in your t-case. The sensor in your rear diff is for RABS only. You don't have ANY wheel speed sensors up front 'cause you don't have 4WABS.

The best and easiest thing you could do if you want to swap the rear axle: JUST LEAVE THE RABS HARNESS DISCONNECTED! You'll no longer have RABS but who cares? It's worthless anyway. Your speedo will not be affected. Your odo will not be affected. Your tranny will not be affected. Trust me, I own a '90!!!!!!!! And if you dont' believe me, unplug it right now and go drive around. The only thing that will happen is the RABS lite in the dash will come on (hint: bulbs can be removed LOL!!!!)

 

Yea good call Honney, didnt realize the year of his truck and thats an important factor. Well hell if you dont have to worry about the VSS than there is no aditional trouble with swappin in the 9". And as far as the pinion angles go, i understand that the front of corse cant be changed but i was wonderin if the rear has to match up with the front. And everyone i talk to down here tells me about the pinion angle i have to set cause of the new 9" 3rd memebr bein diff. Im not sure who to listen to cause all the custom places down here set their own angle's and its not to much of a hassle to do so. But are you sayin that the stock shim i have now can stil be used so i dont have to cut and reweld the perches on there or what? But if i did could i remove it or what does that deal with?

 

> But are you sayin that the stock shim i have now can stil be used >so i dont have to cut and reweld the perches on there or what?

Yes, 95% chance it'll be ok.

>But if i did could i remove it or what does that deal with?

Yes, if you set the pinion angle by re-clocking the spring pads the shim will no longer be necessary.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 26-Jun-02 AT 05:24 PM (EST)]>Howdy all, i recently swapped a 9" axle in my 95 ford
>bronco. After many re-fabrications it worked. Well due to
>the recent breaking of an axle shaft i decided to upgrade
>the shafts to 31 spline and get a full detroit locker
>instead of the welded open i had. My only delima is im not
>quite sure exaclty the type of axle i have. I know its a 9"
>axle from an early model ford. Thats about as far as my
>knowledge goes on it though. I have all the measurements on
>the axle tubing and the axle shafts should that be any help
>and i believe the original shafts. the old shafts are 33.5
>inches tall from bottom of axle(stud flange) to the top of
>the splines. I will say that the axle did not fit under my
>bronco due to the wide stance of the leaf spring perches, so
>we cut them off and welded them a little closer in. The
>local Four Wheel Parts store here in Dallas sold me some
>shafts but they are to short by a few inches. The million
>dollar question is what axle do i really have? and did ford
>make a heavy-duty 9" axle that is wider than the rest, or do
>i simply have an older model axle? I do have the stock axle
>identification plate if anyone knows how to decode it. Here
>is the info on the plate:
>WEV - R1 6F1 (top line)
>3 00 9 711A (bottom Line)
>
>Any and all help and information on this would be much
>appreciated.
>Thanks,
>Gary
>:-X11
This is an old thread, but I've not checked in here for some time,,,,so here is my $.02

As you have been told, there are many model 9" axle assembles.

You have one of the weaker designs. I would not recommend spending any cash on it. Changing from 28 spl to 31 Spl is more then just changing axles. There are several type of bearing ends to the 9" housing [link:http://www.superford.org/registry/users/208/144/housingflange.gif|9" axle housing ends] and two different wheel bolt patterns. The big bearing, car disk brake 9" axle housing is not 5 on 5.5 lug, so will not work on a truck or bronco as is. There are also major differences in the way the housing is built. The early housings were a non tapered design with relatively thin material used in the housing, the tubes attach directly to the center portion, with no extra bracing. The later housings (78&up) have a tapered design to them. From the center part out to about mid way on the tube there is extra material to support the tubes, the tube is thicker also. An excellent donor vehicle for your use is a 78&up bronco with the 9” or same year f150.. BUT a better solution would be to go to [link: http://www.currieenterprises.com |Currie Enterprises] and spend $270 for a brand new, built to your spec Currie 9” housing or $310 for the Heavy duty housing or $550 for the Extreme Duty housing. All of these will be better than a OEM 9” housing, and you can have Currie put the spring pads at the correct angle for your needs. You have the center section already, and were planning on buying a new Detroit and axles so your were almost there in price anyway.
Currie housing $270
Detroit $437
31 spline axles $260 for replacement, more for better ones
Timken Axle Bearings $ 32 each (but that is high retail, can be had for as low as $14 each )
Install kit for new dif $85

Are you going to put new gears in it?