Slick 60's

I do not know what gears my 66 has, there is no tag on the rear end. The warrenty plate says C17, which I think is a 3 speed L.D. and 3.25 gears.

For $60 I can get a center section from the P-N-P out of a 9in equiped big Ford with 3.00 or 2.79 gears.

I need to service my rear end anyway, so Im thinking for an additional $60, I can cruise a little better on the interstate.

Does my 66 have tapered axles? Will the big Fords/Lincolns up to 78 have the same axles?

Im not going to do any towing with my 66, so I can give up a little on the bottom end for better top end cruising.

as long as the rear you pull has 28 splines.you should be good..or at least all of the early ford truck rears have been 28 for me...alot of later ford trucks came with 31 spline axles.....i am not sure how to identify them on the tag...i usually find out the hard way..after i have pulled it!!!!LOL

EDDIE

From what I have learned a letter in front of the rear axle is a denotation for limited slip rear end. There were no 9" limited slips before the 70s. I pulled a complete 9" out a 65 in the pull and save that had a rate for limited slip and a 3:50 gear. That was exactly what I needed for my 4wd to have a limited slip rear. Wrong someone had taken the dana with LS and put a 9" rear end in with 3:70 gears. I learned the hard way. So that leads me to ask are you sure your truck has a 9" or a dana under it?

Since we're not too far apart, if you find a 4.11, 28 spline 9" center section while you're looking for yours, let me know where or maybe even grab it for me if you feel like it

My truck has a 9in.

Seems odd to me that the tag is missing.

I will keep my eye out for the 4.11

HiBoy63 wrote:From what I have learned a letter in front of the rear axle is a denotation for limited slip rear end. There were no 9" limited slips before the 70s. I pulled a complete 9" out a 65 in the pull and save that had a rate for limited slip and a 3:50 gear. That was exactly what I needed for my 4wd to have a limited slip rear. Wrong someone had taken the dana with LS and put a 9" rear end in with 3:70 gears. I learned the hard way. So that leads me to ask are you sure your truck has a 9" or a dana under it?

It's pretty easy to distinguish the 9" from the Dana prior to removal/ disassembly! I can find NO information for a Dana/Spicer of that era with a 3.50 ratio. Most of the Spicers, if not all, were higher numerical ratios, due to the application in 4wd vehicles.
I'll do more research later. There were some strange applications under DSO in those days. My main customer was large enough to get pretty well what they wanted, as long as Ford saw no liability issues. HiBoy, do you know your front axle to be a 3.50 to 1? Is it a Spicer? I would have expected to find a Dana/ Spicer 44 in that application originally.
I just grabbed several 60's Ford manuals back as far as '62 and somehow most opened to the rear axle sections
I then copied the designation numbers for the "limited slip differentials", and searched those numbers in a 57/63 Ford truck parts catalog. Voila, lots of matches!
I didn't bother to search as to whether the 9"applications showed up on the warranty plate under "axle" or not. I DO know that the relatively scarce 4wd Dana rear did, and my recollection is that all combos did, regardless of specific DSO coding where applicable.
I would put little faith in either warranty plate or axle tag info on a fifty year old vehicle; I have several whose configuration has changed in the past year. I did re-install the tag on several. Some actually matched the tag designation, some did not.
Paul

bmcgc,
in answer to your original question, neither the original Ford nor Lincoln axles are the same as the original slick applications.
Paul

Toyz wrote:bmcgc,
in answer to your original question, neither the original Ford nor Lincoln axles are the same as the original slick applications.
Paul

I dont understand.

If my 66 has tapered 28 spline axles, cant I put in any centersection from a 9in rearend that also has tapered 28 spline axles?

I think full size cars had that rear end up to 79.

I looked around the P-N-P and found several with 2.79-3.00 tags on the pumpkin.

I really want to take the entire rearend with the 5x5 disc brakes and have my fronts redrilled to 5x5. Full size Fords of that era had 63in wide 9in rears.

Lots of oem 15x7 steel wheels in the 5x5 pattern.

there is no guesswork involved in the determining dana 44 rear vs the 9"
danas all have a removable cover on the back whereas 9" do not.

http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2002 ... ndex.shtml

if you look in this chart which agrees with the d44 rear 2wd slicks i have dealt with the ratios are 3.73/3.92
3.92 was also the common f100 4x4 ratio

http://www.fordification.com/tech/dana-rear-01.htm

ICEMAN6166 wrote:there is no guesswork involved in the determining dana 44 rear vs the 9"
danas all have a removable cover on the back whereas 9" do not.

http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2002 ... ndex.shtml

if you look in this chart which agrees with the d44 rear 2wd slicks i have dealt with the ratios are 3.73/3.92
3.92 was also the common f100 4x4 ratio

http://www.fordification.com/tech/dana-rear-01.htm

Ice I was surprise to find that my 65 does have a 3.50 or 3.56 as that is pretty high for a 4wd equipped truck. I would love to know the history of the truck and why it has such a tall ratio but alas probably I am only left to guess. It came out of Idaho farm country. I can only surmise the farmer wanted an all around gear for hiway and country but who knows. I ll take a peak at the door tag again. The reason I was asking bmcgc if he had a 9 or dana was because he posted a door tag listing of c17. As I understand it a letter in front of the rear axle # most always denotes LS. His was 17 so Im not sure what that # designates ratio wise but the letter would indicate a dana rear as that was all that was avalible rear end wise for LS through the 60s. My son has a 64 with the dana rear 2wd and yes it is the 3.92 as you say. I was trying to save bmcgc some agrivation by his original post if he was going by the tag on his door and not what was or is actually in his truck.

some but not all of the rear end codes are here
http://home.earthlink.net/~threynolds2/ ... s6166.html

I have a 66 Ford shop manual.

It says:

A = 4-speed new process
B = 3 speed O/Drive
C = 3 speed light duty
D = 3 speed Warner M.D.
E = 3 speed Warner H.D.
F = 4 speed Syn. Warner

There are 4 ratios listed for the Ford rear end:

05 = 4.11
08 = 3.50
09 = 3.70
17 = 3.25

bmcgc wrote:I have a 66 Ford shop manual.

It says:

A = 4-speed new process
B = 3 speed O/Drive
C = 3 speed light duty
D = 3 speed Warner M.D.
E = 3 speed Warner H.D.
F = 4 speed Syn. Warner

There are 4 ratios listed for the Ford rear end:

05 = 4.11
08 = 3.50
09 = 3.70
17 = 3.25

so if you have C 17 on the door tag that means 3 speed light duty trans w 3.25 rear end

Thats what I said in my first post, then I was asked if I had a Dana, and it went from there.

I asked if the 73-79 Ford full size car 9in has tapered axles?

I can get a 2.79 rear end for $60 at the P-N-P.

So the c is not in front of the axle code but under the trans listing. Thats were my confusion came in. It looked like the axle was listed as a c17. Hey Ice I checked my door tag again and yes it states and 08 code and if I go by the numbers listed above it should be a 3:50 rear. So the front dana should be somewhere close to that ratio. Also my DSO was the full 6 digit so probably not bought directly off of the sales lot but I would have thought most 4wds were ordered and not purchased from the dealers lot. Sorry if I confused the issue on the rear end that was not my intent just trying to save someone a headache.

Grab the rear at the pull and save. If you just are getting the pumpkin, then count the splines on the first axle you pull to be sure, but odds are that it is a 28 like you have. The axles will probably be the wrong length but cant hurt to check those also.
Bottom line-----9"-28 spline center sections will interchange no matter what they came from

According to my 1966 book a Dana 44 with code A8 had a 3.54 gear.

You are correct, so now in HiBoy's case, it would help to know which truck he is referring to. As Brian stated, most 61/63 F100 4x4 had a 3.92 ratio. This would be listed with an A on the warranty plate under front axle. One would expect the rear axle to match that ratio, so that would make the rear a Dana 44 , since I am not aware of a 3.92 other than a Dana in the slicks. I don't have my '65 shop manual here at present, so I can't be certain what was available in '65, but a complete search of the Dana catalog, including discontinued models, indicated NO 3.50 ratio for 44's or even 60's. Again, we're dealing with 50 year old trucks, so as SlickMainer will affirm, lots of unexpected changes may have taken place.
I believe Ma Bell did manage to order some of their F250's with 3.54 ratios in the early sixties, but I could be mistaken as to the years. Even the DSO's were a challenge on their vehicles; usually because some repair facility had made a guess as to application.
Now, back to your original question; you asked if the passenger car axles were the same, I answered they are not. This was not meant to say that the carrier assembly would not interchange. You obviously have some knowledge of these applications, so, yeah if you don't mind a 63" width, and the hassle of making it fit ( I may be missing some, but i can think of no common 70's application utilizing disc brakes which would simply drop in place on the slicks), it MIGHT fit inside the fenders. Keep in mind that most 5x5 wheel patterns were somewhat wider than the F100 wheels, so that may aggravate the clearance situation.
Unles you really want 5x5 wheels, my choice would be to do as Fanatic suggested and drop in the carrier. There are "big bearing" and "small bearing axles; there are also a variety of carrier configurations, but I tend to believe as Fanatic stated.
We kinda muddied the waters on your question, so I'll add one final personal opinion; I have never changed from 3.50 to 3.00 or so; I have done plenty of the opposite, however, and the difference is amazing IMO, light truck, heavy truck, 300 inch or 460. I've never worried about minute changes in fuel economy; but my impression was that already sorry fuel economy was not noticably changed with the mid 3 ratios.
Paul

i took a 4.11 out of a 64 and replaced it with a 2.?? out of a 65 merc and it almost killed the drivability of the truck. it had the granny low 4 speed. yes, first acted like you would think, but the jump to second was wayyy too far. 3.25 is actually a pretty good ratio for the best of both worlds. the transmission is where the problems lie.

Im running a 235-70-15 that is 28in tall, its what the PO installed.

I could run 265-75-15s, they are 30.7 in tall and will fit a 7in rim.

That will help out a little bit.

I also ran across a complete o/d unit. Complete down to every single item needed. That would be nice.