Rear Diff Rebuild Parts

[DintDobbs]

@C420sailor GG's! Congrats on doing it yourself, I had to pay a garage for mine (regearing)... Expensive!

Changing the diff oil after a short period is a good idea. I went with Yukons on mine, which recommend a break-in period of 500 miles... Proper break-in and then maintenance is paramount to getting you another 330k out of this set!

(To those who read the early posts concerning fuel economy; I'm in low-elevation, fairly flat areas mostly, and average close to 20 MPG's in a 4-door, SOHC on 4.10's.)

 

[C420sailor]

Thanks guys. On the very rare occasion I get to break an engine in, I do the first oil change very early. Probably smart to do the same here.

She’s an around town vehicle as of right now, so it’ll take a while to put some miles on her. Her big 5.0 sister is handling the road trips for now.

 

[CDW6212R]

Great work and patience to get it done yourself. That's a big deal for anyone.

 

[Wrath]

Got ‘em! CL5Z-4209-A

$250 shipped from a Ford dealer.

Any recommendations for a good diff cover? Not looking for anything crazy, but the ability to drain and fill without pulling the cover and having to fill from the front (PITA) would be nice.

I didn't use the fill plug on the front. Way easier to use the tone ring sensor hole up top. Go in from the left rear wheel well with the wheel off. Easy as pie with the valvolene bag bottles.

 

[C420sailor]

10,000mi and 15ish month follow-up.

Rear had a little gear noise on break-in, but it went away after the first couple hundred miles. I was shocked at how silent the rear was overall—pre rebuild it was loud and I had no idea.

Pulled the cover today to change the fluid. Had a gray tinge to it, but no chunks or burrs. Magnetic drain plug had about a pencil eraser of metal goo on it. Gear wear pattern looks absolutely perfect—proves that you CAN use original shims if you replace with a Ford OEM gear set. Break-in was with Valvoline synthetic 75W140. Continuing to use that.

Overall it looks perfect inside.

I pulled the axles to replace the parking brake shoes—my frictions were totally gone. They were making a rhythmic rattling sound in turns as the friction material clattered around inside the drums! That job is very easy with the axles out. If your shoes are shot and you’re due for a fluid change, I recommend yanking the axles. Could be a good time to do axle bearings too!

Put on a new cover with a Felpro gasket, @donalds style. We’ll see how I like using a gasket.

 

[SWIGIN]

I've done dozens of 8.8 rears and you did it the same way I would have other than my impact will crush a sleeve.

I always insist on people bring me Ford Racing gears to use to keep it simple, just reuse the factory shims and so far that has worked every time. The only small thing I would have done was add a thin shim to tighten up that backlash to around .008. The new bearings will ware in and that backlash will only get looser.



Richman gears were the worse, I hate them.

 

[CDW6212R]

I'm glad the gears install went well. I need to begin to learn to do my own soon, I have a few to do.

What do you think of Spicer gears? I bought new gears for the front and rear of my 98 Explorer project, 3.08's. Ford still made the 8.8's the prior Spring, but they never made 3.08 front gears. Spicer and others made those D35 gears in many ratios, they are the same as old 70's Mopar D35 rears, normal rotation. So I chose Spicer front gears, which run about $100 more than the 8.8 gears. Ford had now obsoleted a ton of parts, including the rarely used tall gear ratios.

 

[donalds]

Isn't spicer the original manufacturer of that axle?

 

[CDW6212R]

Yes, which was my main reason given the other brands. It's nuts that Ford has discontinued so many parts.

 

[Josh P]

Yes, which was my main reason given the other brands. It's nuts that Ford has discontinued so many parts.

They can't sell you a new car if you can keep the old one on the road. I don't like the crush sleeve, I prefer to use a solid spacer.

 

[SWIGIN]

I would think Spicer gears would be a simple install in the front since thats what it is.

Other rear gears I had great luck with was Motive gears, and US Gears.

 

[DintDobbs]

@C420sailor That rhythmic metallic sound while turning is a sound I'm familiar with. I just replaced the parking brake assemblies on both sides of my 2000 Limited, and recently that exact sound which you described started occurring, as well as a small but noticeable change in the feel while engaging the parking brake. I took it back apart to inspect it but didn't see any thing amiss. Perhaps I didn't look closely enough.