Guys,

On my way home this evening I was tooling down the road about 50 or so and started to hear a thud every so often. It got louder when I took a right hand turn. When I got home I climbed underneath to investigate what the noise was and to my suprise the right rear wheel was the culprit. I could take the whole wheel assembly and shake it to replicate the noise. Also upon inspection I found a left rear lug and completely sheered off.

I can get another rearend locally for abut $100 but it came out of a wrecked truck with about 120K miles on it. I have replaced the rear before so that doesn't scare me. Or should I try to tackle the existing rear? I have never been into a rear before so that would be uncharted territory for me. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Scott

 

well rears arn't that bad to mess with but if it was me i would find a 9in and swap under there since you've already replaced the rear in this truck a 160,000mile rear doesn't scare me at all the ring and pinion wear VERY well in my experiance if you do decide to go with the junkyard rear get a new trac lock for it, that will be the only thing that is bad but i would also replace the wheel bearings and the carrier bearings but leave the pinion bearings alone unless you know how to setup a rear end

the advantages of a 9in are
1. parts are everywhere
2. they can be built to handle some SERIOUS power
3. in stock form they are very sturdy
4. no c-clips to fail
5. nascar uses them so you can find CHEAP parts online like $200 detroit lockers and such
6. brake lines and everything bolts in

disadvantages are
1. your rear antilock brakes won't work unless you fab something up
2. might need a new driveshaft or adaptor U-joints i'm not sure on this one though

 

I thought about this overnight and I have some concerns:

1) Speedometer. Without the 8.8 I am left without a way to judge my speed
2) ABS. I would prefer to have it
3) Lug pattern. My current wheels would probably not bolt up

I do not haul any kind of heavy loads or tow anything more than about 1500 lbs so why do I need a 9"? So, at this point I am still considering either a rebuild or replacement 8.8. Anyone else want to chime in, I am still open to suggestions as to what to do.

Scott

 

1. Buy a Tom Tom GPS, they tell speeed

2. RABS on these is a joke, I've yet to see one work properly

3. The lug pattern is still the same 5 x 5.5

4. The 9'' is near bullet proof. Quick story, I was driving home in my F100 and I started hearing a faint noise of a chainfall bein spun, the noise just started getting worse and worse, and by the time I made it in, I was only goin 5mph and the sound was awful. Turns out I had blown the seal in yolk, and for some time, ( I park on an incline), all of the gear oil and came out. I filled her up with 6 quarts of 80w90, spun the tires a few times, noise disappeared, and she still works, not bad for a 350,000 mile old axle to begin with

5. The 9'' is just nice because the huge availability of parts (heck even the chevy guys run 9''s) and how much easier they are to work on bein is you can pull the entire pumpking through the front and then work on it on your shop bench.

6. I believe the ubolts and such will still bolt up, if not NAPA is really good about bein able to get custom U-joints

 

what do you do with your truck? do you take it in the mud? do you drag race it? or is it just a daily driver?

by the way that sucks that it's a 95 and you have that electronic speedometer, i think that was one of the stupidest things ford did other than abandon the 9in

 

Guys, thanks for the responses. My truck is used primarily to drive back and forth to work which is 4 miles each way. No hauling to speak of except for the occasional trip to the dump when some POS tenant of mine leaves trash at the house when they move out. I do haul either a single or double jetski trailer on occasion.

 

don't bother with the 9", too much hassle. you are not doing anything heavy duty where you would need that. I say before you spend the $100 on the new rear, dig a little deeper and price out what would need to be replaced on the existing one. I couldn't really tell what your problem was but the worst case scenario of the $100 rear is what you should do. The 9" is not a bolt in affair.

 

you can actually find them that have the right spring perches and everything. but yeah for just a daily driver i would use a 8.8 since you don't offroad, drag race, or tow your not really beating on it too much

 

Time to bite the bullit and do the 9"

Read this https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=835837

 

There are a lot of parts available for the 8.8 also, since the were used in a lot vehicles from the mustang to the crown vic, ranger, bronco 2, explorer, f 150, ect.

 

the original poster has a 95 truck, electric speedo. why would he re-invent the wheel by getting a 9" when all he is doing is daily driving and some occasional hauling? the used 8.8 is a direct bolt in.

 

This depends entirley if he wants a safe truck ot not.

8.8 axles a very dangerous because of there C-clip constuction, I would bet that 95 Silverado Dude had a C-clip failure. And he was very lucky to get home with the wheel and brakes still on the truck.

95 Silverado Dude, All C-clip axles, that is almost all Silverado axles sense 80, and ALL 1/2 ton Chevy axles have the same weakness, C-clips. The failure of a C-clip will allow the entire axle of one side to come out and take with it the tire and brake drum. This is why I say it's time for a 9, it has nothing to do with performance or payload, and everything to do with getting rid of a dangerous weakness in your truck.

It sounds like you haven't yet done anyhting to figure out what actually went wrong in the axle assembly. I want you to try something, jack up the rear end just enough to get the tires off the ground. Then with the wheel still bolted on and the parking brake off, try and pull the tire out away from the truck, give it a good yank. How much did it come out, did it come out all the way? If it did come out all the way, scary huh, that could have happend while you were driving and would have most likely on your next good turn away from that side. If it didn't come out all the way, push it back it, and then pull back out, how much did it move? Scary huh, that is the play in the C-clip, C-clips are the only thing keeping the axle and thus the wheel on the truck, and all it takes for them to just fall out is enough play, I'd say about 5/16 of an inch, do you have that much play yet. Then do it on the other side also.

Everyone reading this should try this test on there Silverado's also.

This is what the inside end of the axle, the C-clip, and the cross-pin look like.

This C-clip is new but notice that the end of the axle is pounded over and the wear marks on the cross-pin where the axle rids on it. Both of these are increasing the play in the C-clip, increasing the chances of them falling out.

Now if you really want to dive in, remove the back cover and have a friend push the axles/tires in and out. 95 Silverado Dude, you will want to look for your C-clip laying in the bottom of the differental housing. Look at what moves, you will see the axles move in and out, you will see that when they are pushed in they are pushing against the cross-pin, this cross-pin riding on the end of that axle and this tiny contact area takes all the cornering force of the tire pushing in on the axle. If there is enough play you will also see the C-clip, turn it with your fingers, you will see the notch and realise that all it takes for this thing to fall out is for the axle to go in enough. Or for the side gear to go out enough, This is important because alomost all these trucks have posi rear ends, and as the clutches in the pois wear out, the side gear moves further from the cross-pin.

Is it starting to sink in yet, just how easy these things can just fall apart as you drive?

 

I agree they are dangerous for racing applications. But if they were so dangerous for the street, why would Ford still use them today? If they broke on a regular basis and people were getting hurt, it would be huge liability and there would be a recall and ultimately a production change. I am just saying, rather than spending hundreds of dollars and the time hunting down the correct parts, for this application, the original poster should get the used axle and replace the C-clips with new ones for piece of mind.

 

They are dangerous for all aplicatiions, why would racing be any differant. In fact racing should be safer, in racing you can take the time to check and maintain these things, in racing you are prepared for something to go wrong.

On a daily you can drive a rig for years and never think about this, (cause so few know enough to warn you) until one day your driving down an of ramp, the C-clip falls out and on the next curve the axle comes out taking with it the tire and rear brakes. Next thing you know your in the hospital cause you rolled your truck at 50MPH.

Why would Ford still use them, (I'm not sure they do in the new trucks) good question ask Ford. I suspect they just haven't been sued enough. Too few people understand that this weakness exists, and why it's so dangerous. And those that do don't let them fail, so they have no cause to bring suit. I don't want to let them fail and roll my trick just so I can sue Ford. But they do know it's a problem, somewhere around '90 they started putting O-rings in the C-clip groove to help them stay put. I also suspect that they calculate that by the time they become a problem the truck has either well over 100k mi or has been "road hard" or modified. And this would absolve them. Also generally before they fail completely there is a clunking sound as you change direction and the weight shifts from side to side. That people should notice this clunk, and see a mechanic who should know what it is, but they don't issue service bullitens about this, and you don't see any warnings in the manuals. Or maybe there just to stupid.

People are getting hurt, it happens alot but for the reasons above people don't seem to put 2 and 2 together.

Just replacing the C-clips won't do anything. It's not actually the C-clips that fail, it's everything around them that they need to stay in place. There are things that can be done to help them out but there not a total fix, they just help. And yes that is a decent option, just to fix it. Once we understand the weaknesses of this axle we can take the steps and precautions to work with it, but the first step is understanding.

The part that actually fails most of the time is the cross-pin. Because it takes the total cornering side load where the axle pushes against it. The flat end of the axle rides on the round side of the cross-pin, this creates incredible force on just a small area of this pin. Look at the picture above you can see the worn area on the pin. Either the pin wears enough that combined with the wear of the posi clutches and general pounding of the axle and C-clip groove. Or the pin just breaks in half.

 

Wow, a lot of information to digest here. Thanks guys for all of your input.

I will jack up the truck and remove the cover this evening and post my findings. The truck has over 300K miles on it and the original rearend went almost all of those miles until the pinion bearing failed and I replaced the rearend with one from a donor truck with unknown mileage about two months ago. Puting a bunch of money into this truck doesn't really make a whole lot of sense (I only paid $900 for it) so I will probably go the cheap (but safe) route. The bottom line is whether I pony up the $100 for another rearend which could possibly suffer the same (or worse) results or just fix what I have.

Scott