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Rear axle choices Ford 9" or 8.8" or other? (2008-2022 bump)

Q

qwkswede

Old and Slow
300+ Club
Joined
Mar 19, 2003
Location
Denver, CO
I am about to start hunting junkyards for an axle to use in a high powered volvo. It is going to be a solid axle, no IRS because the car will go faster than 10.99 hopefully, and IRS isn't allowed after a certain point. 10.99 comes to mind as the cutoff for IRS cars, its been a while though.

In my normal cheap style, I'll just crawl the junkyards for most of the parts, then do the fab work myself to make it work in a Volvo. It will likely need shortining, and the brackets welded on, tubbing the rear for some big rubber. Thats the plan.

I'm thinking Ford 9" as the defacto strong rear end with tons of aftermarket support and a removable center section differential carrier assembly.

But I know that alot of newer cars that im likely to find in the junkyard are now Ford 8.8 rears. And there is some support for these in the aftermarket because they are in Mustangs.

Any thoughts on where I should hunt for the ideal rear axle to start this project moving along?
 
I'd say get a 9" out of an older Ford truck (late 70's-early 80's F Series or bronco, plentiful in yards) for the housing and just get an aftermarket center section from some performance company. Easiest, and maybe the cheapest... That's what I'd do, anyway. I'm all for easy.


Pete.

Edit: P.S. Teh Volvovette has a 9" under it, iirc.
 
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I'd get an 8.8 out of a lincoln or out of a ford explorer, fab it in, replace the guts with baller status ones when/if they esplode. The 9" is HEAVY.

There's lots of support for the 8.8.
 
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Kevin Hawkinson and JV are using the Toyota rear. I'd love to see more pics of their progress. (hint hint).
 
740ATL said:
Kevin Hawkinson and JV are using the Toyota rear. I'd love to see more pics of their progress. (hint hint).
Click to expand...

+1

The toyota supra with 5 bolt wheels comes standard with an awesome diff that is:
1.) light
2.) strong
3.) already has a LSD
 
The 8.8" would be my vote if you are planning on making less than around 700ftlb of torque on drag tyres.:-P

Get a later one out of a truck and you'll be good to go. Make sure it's a 31 spline axle. The Explorer one comes with discs from 97 on and has an LSD as standard. You can't fit C clip eliminators though (if that bothers you- it doesn't me). Carbon diff clutch plates are around ?100 on Ebay and Moser do custom length shafts if you need them.

You should find the 8.8" much cheaper to build than the 9" because you haven't got to buy a rear disc set up or an LSD. Plus it only weighs about 20-30lb more than the Volvo axle.

Leave the 9" for the V8 guys- they have bigger budgets than us!:-P
 
fidel sells 27 spline shafts to drop into the volvo rear end that will support 700+ ft-lbs
(simply better metal than volvo used from the factory)
($380ish per set)
combine this with a good solid center diff and the reasons to go away from the volvo unit fade quite quickly
the volvo tubes are thicker than on an 8.8 anyways
 
FlyingTog said:
I'd say get a 9" out of an older Ford truck (late 70's-early 80's F Series or bronco, plentiful in yards) for the housing and just get an aftermarket center section from some performance company. Easiest, and maybe the cheapest... That's what I'd do, anyway. I'm all for easy.


Pete.

Edit: P.S. Teh Volvovette has a 9" under it, iirc.
Click to expand...

NO, I'm pretty sure Dug did an 8,8". 9" diffs don't have that removeable rear cover, and the differential unbolts and comes out the front as a single unit. See if this picture comes through --v
2196921_105_full.jpg
 
Spider gears are a weakness in the open diffs. Axles are a weakness on all of them. 27 spline is a pretty dinky axle to put major torque through. Especially on slicks.
I know that my eaton locker diff in the 740 seems to be much stronger than the couple of open diffs I destroyed.

pwschuh said:
What good solid center diff are we refering to here? I thought that the folks who were killing the Volvo axles were breaking the spider gears and whatnot.
Click to expand...
 
Lord Tentacle said:
fidel sells 27 spline shafts to drop into the volvo rear end that will support 700+ ft-lbs
(simply better metal than volvo used from the factory)
($380ish per set)
combine this with a good solid center diff and the reasons to go away from the volvo unit fade quite quickly
the volvo tubes are thicker than on an 8.8 anyways
Click to expand...

You serious? Have you actually cut an axle in half to check?

Because the axle tubes on my 8.8" were 1/4" thick steel. I've got pictures too, if you want them.

EDIT:

Now with pics:

8.8" and 1041 side by side:
DSCF0005-1.jpg


8.8" axle tube:
diffandroses42.jpg


Spindly 31 spline shafts::-P
diffandroses24.jpg
 
BB-Q said:
You serious? Have you actually cut an axle in half to check?

Because the axle tubes on my 8.8" were 1/4" thick steel. I've got pictures too, if you want them.

EDIT:

Now with pics:

8.8" and 1041 side by side:
Click to expand...

8.8" axle tubes come in a few different thickness ranges from what I read...the thicker the higher rating for vehicle weight, important for a pickup/suv, not so important on our cars...overkill and why have that extra weight??? no one is breaking the housing assemblies that I know of
 
qwkswede said:
I am about to start hunting junkyards for an axle to use in a high powered volvo. It is going to be a solid axle, no IRS because the car will go faster than 10.99 hopefully, and IRS isn't allowed after a certain point. 10.99 comes to mind as the cutoff for IRS cars, its been a while though.
Click to expand...

Uh there are factory IRS cars going faster than 10.99 ...

There is no cut off for IRS last time I checked
 
pwschuh said:
What good solid center diff are we refering to here? I thought that the folks who were killing the Volvo axles were breaking the spider gears and whatnot.
Click to expand...

those are people too cheap to install a new differential, they are using open diffs or welding the parts together...

a new diff will replace the factory spider gears...

I like the idea of new replacment axles with stronger material for the stock rear ends...this option gets expensive, however, no cutting or welding which is appealing...
 
BB-Q said:
The 8.8" would be my vote if you are planning on making less than around 700ftlb of torque on drag tyres.:-P

Get a later one out of a truck and you'll be good to go. Make sure it's a 31 spline axle. The Explorer one comes with discs from 97 on and has an LSD as standard. You can't fit C clip eliminators though (if that bothers you- it doesn't me). Carbon diff clutch plates are around ?100 on Ebay and Moser do custom length shafts if you need them.

You should find the 8.8" much cheaper to build than the 9" because you haven't got to buy a rear disc set up or an LSD. Plus it only weighs about 20-30lb more than the Volvo axle.

Leave the 9" for the V8 guys- they have bigger budgets than us!:-P
Click to expand...

If you have disc brakes already, why would you even need c-clip eliminators?
 
Karl Buchka said:
If you have disc brakes already, why would you even need c-clip eliminators?
Click to expand...

Yeah I end up trying to eplxain that to people every now and again. C-Clip eliminators are completely redundant if you have disc brakes. For the wheel to fly off in the event of a broken axle you'd need to tear the caliper right off the bracket.

C-clip eliminators were a big deal with rear drums and that's it.
 
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