Best place to buy a rebuilt Ford rear end??

[Itoldyouso]

My Kids T bucket has an 8 inch Ford rear axle w/ standard one wheel 2:79 gears. He is going to stay with a one wheeler because we like them better on a light, short wheelbase car, but he wants to go to 3:70's because of the tall tires and cam profile he is running.

He has two choices:

1) Order new gear set and install kit from Summit for about $ 300, then pay a local shop about $ 150 to set them up, or.......

2) Buy a complete center section already done........best deal we found so far is $ 525 + $ 50 shipping.

Anyone know of a shop that has units ready to go any less money??

Don

[Itoldyouso]

Never set one up Denny, we are more fabricators rather than mechanics. Heck, I even take my car to the oil change place.

Seriously, I'd hate to screw up his new gears, rather have someone who knows do it and pay the little extra.

Don

[Irelands child]

There are still some salvage yard finds - for instance, a 200CI top loader trans '70s Granada has a 3.55, while the 250CI version has 3.40s. My last 3.40 gearset came from a Pinto (a what??) wagon and was about perfect for my 'bucket, tho I didn't have tall tires. I have a rebuilt 2.79 and a good 3.00, but few takers and in the 9" do have a 3.70, which is my JIC spare

[HemiTCoupe]

Do it yourself, we have had a few diff's changed by experts, and had a few fail! None that we have done our self ever failed.
Buy your gears from Ford Racing, and get good gears, they probably cost you less there, and get the install kit from them also.

----> http://www.fordracingparts.com/parts...g%20&%20Pinion

Pat

[shawnlee28]

You can do it!!!!!!
I did mine......
Denny ,walked me right thru it ,you just gatta watch him,he will sneak back into the post and change pictures on ya.........................
If you have a good rear now,its just a gear change and a few shims........

I bet you could pull it off in a day,the next one will only take a few hours tops.......my logic was, thats more money to spend on the ride ,if I do the labor part.
A ford 9 inch ,you can just send in the center chunk,not sure on yours ,they may need the entire rear to do the gears on that one.........one more reason to do it yerself.
As you can see ,I am on the Don can do it bandwagon
P.S. I am all for you painting the bucket too...

[Dave Severson]

They're not that hard to set up. It does require some special tools, but after two builds, you've covered the cost of hiring it done.... If you don't want to do that, then I'd hit the yards and find the one you want. If it's an original, the tag on the center section will tell you what the ratio is, and whether or not it's a posi....

[Itoldyouso]

Yeah, I just don't feel comfortable doing it ourselves, and it is gonna be a one time deal, so buying the spanners and all would not be cost effective. 8 inchers are drying up in the few yards we have around here. I spoke to a guy I know who has a performance shop, and he says $ 150 labor, plus a kit ($ 100) and the gears are around $ 200. That is only $ 450 or so, and we figured that is close enough to the $ 525 and $ 50 shipping to make it worthwhile to just buy one in the box, painted, and ready to slip in. Plus, Don's engine is all new, the TCI tranny is all rebuilt,so it would be a shame to have the rear end be a weak link and give him trouble.

I just thought maybe one of you had a source for a guy who did these and sold them predone at maybe a few buck savings.

Don

[Dave Severson]

I sold the last one I had to H Worrell---he might still have the one he took out of the car, he just wanted the posi out of mine.....

[HemiTCoupe]

I had one sitting here for about 12-15yrs and finally I gave the 8", and a complete IRS to TomF! I could not give it away till this summer, I gave him a van full of stuff

Pat