Found something interesting today.

86-91 Mazda RX7 GXL, Turbo II and GTU's had a 59 1/2" wide rearend with 5 on 4 1/2" bolt pattern, disk brakes and 3.90 or 4.10 ratio's with possible suregrip diffs.

As I understand it, this is 3" wider than an A-Body rear, so if you used the late Mustang wheels, this would work.

The GXL is a 7" ring gear and the others are 8", but the 7" rear has live in mid 10 second cars just fine. Sounds like they are pretty stout.

Found this on http://www.grannysspeedshop.com. They have kits to swap 8.8's into the RX7, along with the kits to swap Chevy and Ford V8's in to the car. Buddy of mine built one with a 330 hp Chevy crate motor, stock rear seems to be fine. Somewhere on the site, they say that the stock rear will live behind a V8 swap, even though they just came out with the bolt in rear swap kit.

Also, Granny's has a plate to bolt the stock RX7 disks to an 8.8, so if your Ranger rear has drums, this might be a way to put disks on it.

The 86-91 15" wheels were 6" wide and had a 4 1/2" backspacing, the Turbo II and GTU cars had 16x7 wheel, no idea what backspacing.

Don't know that this is a cheap alternative, but it has possibilities. Might be something to keep in mind in case you trip over an RX7 rear.

Just thought I would share.

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'15 Chrysler 200S V6
'74 Duster 360, factory 4 speed car

I was thinking a while back about using a nissan rear out of a 300z cuz they are independent suspen. and they are 90% posi with a 4 1/2 bolt pattern and the frame they bolt to is a sub frame that looks pretty easy to mount up to anything also they had disk brakes (thats the only reason I didn't take it any further I could not afford the front disk set up for my car)

sorry I ment 90% have a posi