55' Mercury rearend

49clubcoupe

49clubcoupe

Junior Member
While I was getting the brake drums free on my 55' Mercury monterey, sat for 50 years, I noticed that the axle bearing and or ring & pinion assembly didn't sound to great. The diff housing was full of oil. What rearend am I looking at here? I know it's pre 9" ford, is it a Ford built rear? Are parts available still to completely rebuild?
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The 1954 used the Ford type rear axle with the removable 3rd member similar to the 1949 thru 1953 flathead powered Ford cars. My books illustrate what looks like a Dana 44 for 1955 but the part numbers have a lot of Lincoln prefixes from the 49 thru 51 era. If it is a Dana/Spicer, it should have a casting mark near the bulls eye on the right side of the housing next to the rear cover that indicates 44 for a Dana 44 or whatever is there. The Lincoln cars used an odd ball axle that was made by Dana/Spicer but was a different model number.

They must have had problems in 1954 that made them go back to the Dana/Spicer axle. Ford station wagons and Police cars also used Dana axles.

A photo of the rear housing may help ID it.
 
It's a Dana 45, a beefed version of the 44. Most internal parts are unobtanium but 44 parts will work with some creative shimming. A good axle shop should be able to do it. Besides in Mercs they were used in Scrubby pickups and other truck applications. It's really a lot more axle than the car needed. Combine that with the T-85 and R11 OD and it's almost like Ford was anticipating someone dropping in a later MEL or FE engine.
 
Lincoln used the Dana 53 for a long time and this might be a mix of the two since they had 20-spline axles. The Dana 53 was a 4500 lb axle where the Dana 44 was a 3500 lb set up. I notice that the 1955 "MC" axle has some Lincoln part numbers in it. The Dana 45 didn't stay around very long so parts are likely as hard to find as the Dana 53 but there may be bearings & seals available if a person looked around a bit. It may be easy to change back to the Dana 44 since they were still being used in F100 pickups. My Hollander shows no interchangeability except within the 1955 & 56 Mercury models and 1956 Mercury station wagons. The 9-inch came out in 1957 and superseded a lot of the Ford & Mercury stuff prior to it.
 
Mac's lists the pinion seal and differential bearings. I replaced the pinion seal in mine with a Mac's part, so far so good. I'm thinking of ditching it and going with a Ford 8.8" axle to get a more highway friendly ratio and better parts availability. The 45 rear with an OD trans is 4.09:1. It's fine as long as you don't kick the OD down at 70 mph.
 
Did for/Mercury offer an OD trans in these cars? I thought they were all a 3 speed.

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Yup, OD was a popular option. The OD trans is a 3 speed with a planetary gearset in the tailshaft and some electrical circuitry to control it.
 
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