57-59 Ford 9" Rear Axle....

[tennsmith]

What I need is more of an education than anything else. I have a 59 Ford 9" axle housing, pumpkin and axleshafts, but have noticed that the axleshafts have two different "brake space lengths". The intended use for this axle is to put it under a '36 Ford and I desire the "narrowist" width achievable without cutting the housing and buying custom made axles. Both axles that I have are 28 spline axles, but bear different end markings. One has the early recessed rectangle with two straight sides, 2 curved sides, and the other is flat with two drilled holes and a center dimple similar to that found on 31 spline axles. The older axle (rectangle) has roughly a 2 3/8" brake space and the other (dimpled one) something like 2 3/16". These may not be the "exact" values, but are close (they do not include the thickness of the backing plate). I'd like to match them up by buying another stock axle with the narrower brake space, but don't know what to look for in terms of what vehicle carried these axles.

So my question is, did the later year narrow-housing 65/66 Mustangs come with these "smaller brake space" axles? Is it possible that this axle came from an 8.8" rear end? I'm trying to find a short axle with the narrower brake space to match the longer one. I am aware that Currie and Moser will custom-make an axle for me, but still a bit uneasy about specifying the length, etc. and the cost has to be more than finding a used Ford axle at a junkyard.

 

[Junknshit]

I'm no expert on this, but I do know that there are long and short axles in 9" rears, and you can narrow a couple inches by cutting the long side housing and using a short side axle. Quite a few dif. lengths over the years,

 

[34pickup]

I am not quite sure what you are asking but I can tell you that there are 2 different axle bearing sizes on the 57-59 Ford rearends. The smaller bearing retainer had a different bearing bolt pattern than the larger bearing had.Measure the bearings and see if they are different sizes.I think the larger bearing axles were on Rancheros and station wagons while the smaller bearings went on regular passenger cars.Maybe the larger bearing axle had larger brake shoes also?

 

[paul2748]

I understand what your problem is.

In my experience with 9 inch rears, Ford, in order to get larger brakes on the same axle, changed the "dish" of the backing plate to accommodate the larger width brakes. The larger the width the more dish the backing plate had.

For example, I have larger width shoes (from a later TBird or Truck) on my 57 rear. The dish in the backing plates are different than the stock 57 ones.

This may translate to the wider widths that you mentioned.

Which one is the stock width for the 59, I don't know.

 

[tennsmith]

I am not quite sure what you are asking but I can tell you that there are 2 different axle bearing sizes on the 57-59 Ford rearends. The smaller bearing retainer had a different bearing bolt pattern than the larger bearing had.Measure the bearings and see if they are different sizes.I think the larger bearing axles were on Rancheros and station wagons while the smaller bearings went on regular passenger cars.Maybe the larger bearing axle had larger brake shoes also?

Both are small bearing axles as they fit the housing OK, they're just from different cars having different backing plates/shoe widths. I'm hoping someone is aware what cars had which.

 

[Randy in ca]

I checked 3 different rear ends (1957 big bearing, 1957 small bearing and 1959 small bearing) and all of the axles have the 3 holes on the end. Not sure what you mean by "brake space" so I measured 2.75" offset from the outside edge of the backing plate to the outside mounting edge of the axle flange (on the '59 small bearing one). Hope this helps figure things out.

 

[ctfortner]

Man I feel for ya. I have lived that and it sucked. I had never heard of backspacing, but believe me it exists. I didnt have backing plates or anything and had to get some brakes to fit.

I was told by some that small bearing brakes are small bearing brakes, whether from an 8" or 9" rear. Then some said things about backspacing. Well I had (2) different sets of 8" small bearing brakes and backing plates and neither would fit correctly.

Here is my thread when I was doing the same thing with a 57 ford 9". Good info here.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=362935

I ended up using a setup from a 9" rear that was really close to being perfect, and it was made perfect by slightly grinding the backing plates down so everything hit were it should (i am talking very little). Someone recommended this so I did it. I used some clay inside when test fitting everything to make sure everything was lining up correctly. Works fine, and ebrake works great.

I wish I remembered more info but it was over 2 years ago when I went through this.