My mistake - I've looked at those earlier T-bird ones too, but not too hard. Don't know what I was thinking...

Bet you could pick up a whole assy for $400 or less.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Two words, Maxda RX7.

A simple, but effective IRS with sub-frame mounting. It has about 4/6 bolts holding the sub-frame to the chassis and the suspension uses two swing arms with coil springs.

That sounds like an even better idea, Kesteb. Gotta check that one out...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I have a Ford 8 inch that I pulled from a wrecked '71 Dart.

If you can find a Pinto wagon in a wrecking yard you can
get the 3.50 rear carrier. It'll swap out like a Mopar 8 3/4
carrier. The Ford 8 is plenty strong for a typical slant six,
plus there are a lot of 3rd party options for it, rear disk
brakes etc.

I got my 8" Ford with drive shaft for $60, it's hard to beat the
price compared to an 8 3/4. It looks sort of like an 8 3/4 too.
These are plentiful in the salvage yard.

Anyone sell an Ford-to-Mopar adapter that supports the
Mopar wheel index? That's my only concern, should be
easy to overcome.

The Ford 8 is lighter than the Mopar 8 3/4, which should
help with handling, I don't need anymore unsprung weight
than is necessary.

I'll go with the Mopar 8 1/4 when I find one in a junked
A-body.

I stopped by the local pull a part when I got back from Gatlinburg and went through the entire Dodge section without a single 8 3/4 of any kind. I wandered over to the Ford section for the first time and found 3 complete 8" under the first three Mavericks I looked at. The yard sells complete drum to drum rears for $80. Just a third member is $55.

Lo and behold, over by the Ford part of the yard is apparently the "old car" section I had never seen. I guess they put '60s and older vehicles over there of any make. I found a '66 Valiant four dour, '66 Fury, and '66 D100. The Fury had a 8 3/4, but the gear ratio seemed super high doing the old "spin the wheel and see how many times the yoke turns" trick. The yoke didn't even go two complete turns for the one revolution of the wheel.
Would that indicate a toasted third member, super duper highway gears, or "you have to turn the yoke, not the wheel, stupid!"? It's worked this way on most other rears in the yard...

Rob don't forget to look at the trucks and vans as well.

Rob,

Were those 8" rears 5 lug or 4? If they are 5 lug, I might be interested in where that yard is.

Hope you and Doug had a fun ride back down on Sunday. I had a very enjoyable ride in that '63 over the mountains. Thing handles pretty well even with those 13s on it!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Hey Lou,
Of the three I looked at I think all, or at least 2, were 5 lug. I found a good truck oil pan that I need to go back for, so I'll verify that. I certainly don't mind pulling one for you if you want me to. I thought I might grab one for later use anyway. Maybe we could work a swap for one of your 8 3/4 center sections or something. I will need one for the Turismo project. Doug is going to sell me a narrowed 8 3/4 that should work great.

I'll get back over there as soon as I can. It's wise to move fast as the yard moves things through pretty quickly. I've missed out on a couple things over the last year because I waited a week. They do their crushing by rows of cars at a time. Oldest row gets crushed to make room for a new row of cars.

Do you want me to check that '66 Valiant 4 door for anything? The sheetmetal looked decent at a glance. Grille was toast, but bumpers I think were good. I'm gonna grab the manual steering gear for an extra.

Sorry, we should probably start a PM rather than taking over this post.

Bottom line, there seem to be several 8" rears available in yards...

Rob