Hello everyone, new to the site. I bought a 55 f100 last year and tore it down to the frame. A friend of mine gave me a rear end out of a 72 Cougar but it is about two or three inches too short. Is this a problem? Can the difference be made up with the wheels? I love the look of the truck but want to lower it. This is truly a blank sheet of canvas. I will probably go with a droped axle and disc brakes in the front to keep the cost down. The motor in it is a 239 v8. I would like to rebuild the motor since it was running 10years ago when it was parked. ( so I'm told.) I put marvel mystery oil in each cylinder and turned it over with a breaker bar. everything sounds smooth. Have not checked compression. Everything seems original but I'm not set on keeping that way.

 

Welcome law1. This is a good site for asking questions. If the rear end is a total of 2-3" to short in width then that means 1=1.5" on each side so you may be able to make it up with wheel offset or by adding spacers. Many don't like spacers but I've not had any problems if you go with the better quality ones. You have approx. 11" from the bed side to the rear fender lip so you will have to see what you need to center your tires within the 11". Read some of the tech articles at the top of the forum. Some really good info in there.

 

hmmm to short huh ??????? sounds like a good excuse to move the frame rails in so you dont have to use spacers hee hee and end up with a tubbed look welcome . dunno much 'bout the y blocks , just like the flatty's a learning curve , but everyone here and my experience with the one that was in the 55 1 ton i had , they have a lot of parts that are unto themselves . if ya wanna y block why not find a 272 , 292 , or a real hard one nowadays , a 312 ??? i got a rural route carrier on my route that has a broken , beat down 62 f350 im trying to get { he wants to scrap it , thinks he's gonna make some scratch !!!!??????????? } that has a sweet running 292 . they're still out there .

 

I wish I had an unlimited supply of cash but I'm married with children. I would like to keep the overall look of the truck stock. (tubed out is cool though) I just took the old rear end apart and it looked good. I know it's geared at 3.92 This is stump pulling ratio right? I see 4.09 and 4.27 is avaliable for $325. I could keep the rear and change the ratio. Would the 4.27 be that much of a difference? Then I would not have to worry about the length and either way both rear ends would have to be rebuilt.

 

That would be going the wrong direction, you need something in the 3:00-3:50 range for highway driving. I'm running a 3:25 ratio 8.8 froma 87 Lincoln in my 53.
Oh yeah, Welcome to FTE!

 

I have a 53 and I've picked up a 9" rear from a 71-ish Mustang. I don't remember it being off by that much. When I get further along on disassembly, I'll have to take a closer look.
Hey 55 f350, can you email me at carnut122@aol.com? I grew up in Springfield and went to St. Joseph's, SHS, and LHS.

 

Welcome!
I took my 3.92 out of my 55 last week and am cleaning up (new brakes and bearings) a 3.25 we pulled out of a junked 69 F100. We measured the distance between the spring supports and the overall width inside wheel to inside wheel before we took it out and paid $75!
I have never done anything like this, but one step at a time with these guys on FTE as backup works wonders.

 

Welcome to FTE

What 1972 Cougar rear end did you get? There are THREE different types.

With the 302 engine, all Cougars came with an 8" rear end, the smaller brother of the 9 inch.

With a 351C or 351W engine, the rear end could be a 8 inch, it could be a 9 inch or...it could be the WER 8.7 integral rear end.

The 8.7 has an inspection cover, the 8 and 9's do not.

The WER 8.7 and 8 inch are weak sisters, suitable only for the cars they came in.

The Cougars of this time period (1967 thru 1973) used 5 lug wheels with a 4.50" bolt pattern, while the trucks have 5 lug wheels with a 5.50" bolt pattern.

 

Welcome to the forum law1. There should be a list of rear ends in one of those stickies at the top of the page. I put a 66 bronco rear under my first '48 f1, and the tires just rubbed the box. If your rear is wider than mine, then it should work ok. I'm guessing, as one will never really know til it is all put together for fitment.

 

HI I posted an earlier reply with a link to a great rear end site. But it has a link on it that has to go through "airport security." before it will re appear.

Darn site is getting pretty silly about that.

Julie

 

well carnut glad to see me and stu , fat fendered ford { the other kevin from round here } aint the only ones from the corn field . went to lhs for a bit myself , in trouble most of the time till i moved south for a while . law i'm going to pick up a 9 inch today out of a 68 1/2 ton that will fall in literally , and getting the appropriate shock mounts from stu , so i can do better . my 53 has a 32 in it and the flatty is screaming at 50 - 55 on the big roads . not highway freindly at all .

 

Note Mustang and the like: Housings for those cars, even in 9", are lighter than truck housings and not suitable for truck or off road use. You'll be ok if you are mostly unladen, but if you are going to haul or tow, get a truck housing.

As for that link you posted, there is a history there and the site usually not allowed here. If you want to know more, it's there to be found.