Ford 9"

[Hanover Mopar]

Does anybody know of a GOOD shop in Eastern MA area to rebuild a Ford 9” differential. Not looking for bargains. I want it done right and understand good work costs and I will have to pay for it.

Thanks in advance

Jack

 

[VeryFastCoronet]

Dr Steves
Manchester NH
They rebuild all my stuff!
Done right the first time!

 

[Cranky]

Is this a rear end that already has the 'good' stuff in it?

 

[Hanover Mopar]

No good stuff. As far as I know it's stock

 

[dvw]

No good stuff. As far as I know it's stock

If its got any power the stock stuff isn't that great. better off just buying an entire 3rd member and axles. And that's assuming it doesn't need the housing braced.
Doug

 

[WP29440SE]

for the money your about to dump on that Ford junk I would suggest you do it right and do it once and dump it into a Dana. it sounds like you know what you want tho

 

[5.7 hemi]

Holy crap , just go Dana and be done.

 

[Hanover Mopar]

The Dodge has a Dana. The 9” is in a 32 Ford Coupe “driver”

 

[Cranky]

If you're not hammering it with a lot of power or have a ton of traction, it'll do the job. The big draw to the 9 is the huge choice of gear ratios which circle track racers like but if you're not playing with that, it's not big deal. The 9 will cost a bit more to rebuild because it has more parts to swap out but it shouldn't be that much more. A Dana would look cool though peeking out from under that 32.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Under a 32, drop that 9’ in there, it’ll be good. Just out of curiosity, how about a Winters quick change? That would be frickin’ cool!

 

[Steve Garner]

There are many things that have made the Ford 9" as popular as it is. They are renowned for their endurance in part because they are one of very few diffs to have the pinion supported at it's rearward end (that's the stub on the head of the pinion, rides in a roller). They are also super easy to set up, especially compared to a D60. Install the pinion in it's support with correct preload. Pull the entire support out to change shims for pinion depth. Threaded carrier brg adjusters. No pressing bearings on and off to change shims. 10 mins to set up a ford.

 

[Cranky]

It needs that rear support bearing because the two pinion bearings inside the support housing are soooo close together....and the rear bearing fit is really thin.....at least the ones I've built were. I also think it's fairly odd that bone stock 9 really isn't all that much stronger (if at all) than the 8 3/4 is. You have to use all kinds of aftermarket parts to bring it up to being equal or a bit stronger than a stock 60. And to set up a Dana, use 'dummy' bearings to get where you need to be and then install the 'to go' bearings. And in the 30+ years I've been doing this, I've never been able to do a setup in 10 minutes on any kind of a rear end. If you did one in 10 minutes, you got extremely lucky.....

 

[Steve Garner]

Maybe it's the 45 years I've been doing it, but once the bearings are pushed on and the pinion is in the quill, no more than 10 to do the setup. They didn't add the third bearing because they accidentally put the other two bearings too close together. They spaced them the way they did for optimum and even support, knowing there were going to be 3 supports and knowing where the greatest load is. Cost more to make, but hey. I don't know that I've ever seen an actual test of the strength of the two stock diffs, most of what I've ever heard is anecdotal, the Ford guy's claim and the Mopar guy's claim... But I would say that the Ford has the greatest potential. Add the best parts available to both of them and I think you'll find most of the serious racers are using the 9". Each to his own.

 

[Cranky]

Maybe it's the 45 years I've been doing it, but once the bearings are pushed on and the pinion is in the quill, no more than 10 to do the setup. They didn't add the third bearing because they accidentally put the other two bearings too close together. They spaced them the way they did for optimum and even support, knowing there were going to be 3 supports and knowing where the greatest load is. Cost more to make, but hey. I don't know that I've ever seen an actual test of the strength of the two stock diffs, most of what I've ever heard is anecdotal, the Ford guy's claim and the Mopar guy's claim... But I would say that the Ford has the greatest potential. Add the best parts available to both of them and I think you'll find most of the serious racers are using the 9". Each to his own.

You would be wrong to think that....the early 9's didn't have the rear bearing at first and Ford found out that wasn't going to work because it didn't as the cars started getting more horsepower. The 9 got it's great potential because of NASCAR liked it since it had the best selection of gear ratios but it wasn't strong enough to hold up in stock form to the HP that NASCAR was shoving to it and even that, they still fail after all the modifications that's done it.

 

[Steve Garner]

You would be wrong to think that....the early 9's didn't have the rear bearing at first and Ford found out that wasn't going to work because it didn't as the cars started getting more horsepower. The 9 got it's great potential because of NASCAR liked it since it had the best selection of gear ratios but it wasn't strong enough to hold up in stock form to the HP that NASCAR was shoving to it and even that, they still fail after all the modifications that's done it.

First I've ever heard of that storey. According to the Ford enthusiasts they've been that way since 1957. Would seem to me easier (cheaper) to have changed the bearing spacing and size rather than make a more intricate casting for the 3rd bearing, more machining, more parts etc if they had made that kind of mistake. Especially since if it were the size of and separation of the bearings that was at fault why didn't they just correct it with a different pinion support with larger bearings, like the one in the pic used with the nodular housings? As the horsepower got greater they used larger bearings, as large as a 60, and still had the benefit of a third support.
I don't think the drag guys of today really care what the Nascar guys thought of them. They're the ones using them today and I suspect they use them because of their reliability with the parts available to them.

 

[Cranky]

First I've ever heard of that storey. According to the Ford enthusiasts they've been that way since 1957. Would seem to me easier (cheaper) to have changed the bearing spacing and size rather than make a more intricate casting for the 3rd bearing, more machining, more parts etc if they had made that kind of mistake. Especially since if it were the size of and separation of the bearings that was at fault why didn't they just correct it with a different pinion support with larger bearings, like the one in the pic used with the nodular housings? As the horsepower got greater they used larger bearings, as large as a 60, and still had the benefit of a third support.
I don't think the drag guys of today really care what the Nascar guys thought of them. They're the ones using them today and I suspect they use them because of their reliability with the parts available to them.

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