F***ing Ford 9"

Boonie Buster · Jun 11, 2007

are the axle shafts interchangable, as in can i take one from the pass. side and put it in the drivers side? I have two axle shafts out at home and want to take jsut one as a spare in case something happens, but when looking at them, it looks as though one of the bearings sits closer to the flange than the other.:eeek: so is it possible or not???

(28 spline early bronco axle)

Not Jobless · Jun 11, 2007

No...the axle shafts are not the same length going from passenger to drivers side.

Boonie Buster · Jun 11, 2007

Jobless said:
No...the axle shafts are not the same length going from passenger to drivers side.

ok, because at quick glance they look to be the same height, standing upright on the floor, so i guess I might ass well throw both axles in then, dang, was looking to possibly lighten the load of spare parts for the trip... might have to bring a trailer, it is an S-10 I'm going to try wheeling:haha:

Not Jobless · Jun 11, 2007

Boonie Buster said:
ok, because at quick glance they look to be the same height, standing upright on the floor, so i guess I might ass well throw both axles in then, dang, was looking to possibly lighten the load of spare parts for the trip... might have to bring a trailer, it is an S-10 I'm going to try wheeling:haha:

When we built my rear diff we had to offset the 3rd member to one side to make up for the offset of the pinion in order to make both shafts the same length.

If you center the pinion on a 9" the axles will not equal length.

Boonie Buster · Jun 11, 2007

Jobless said:
When we built my rear diff we had to offset the 3rd member to one side to make up for the offset of the pinion in order to make both shafts the same length.

If you center the pinion on a 9" the axles will not equal length.

wait, are you talking about d-shafts in the first part? so if I center the 3rd they wil be the different lengths? but if i leave it stock (like mine) it will STILL be different lengths or they'll be the same? because from what I saw from just looking at the two sides next to each other was that one bearing race was higher up on the shaft than the other.

CrustyJeep · Jun 11, 2007

Jobless said:
When we built my rear diff we had to offset the 3rd member to one side to make up for the offset of the pinion in order to make both shafts the same length.

That's what I did on my 44 as well. It makes the rear D/L dog leg a little, but equal length shafts are a good thing.

CrustyJeep · Jun 11, 2007

Boonie Buster said:
wait, are you talking about d-shafts in the first part? so if I center the 3rd they wil be the different lengths? but if i leave it stock (like mine) it will STILL be different lengths or they'll be the same? because from what I saw from just looking at the two sides next to each other was that one bearing race was higher up on the shaft than the other.

The problem is that the pinion isn't centered in the third. If you center the third in the housing the shafts will be equal length, but then the pinion will not be centered in the axle.

Boonie Buster · Jun 11, 2007

but the pinion isn't centered to the axle housing either.

Not Jobless · Jun 11, 2007

The bearings that are pressed onto the axle shafts should be in the same spot on each axle.

Just measure them to see if they are the same.

Boonie Buster · Jun 11, 2007

Jobless said:
The bearings that are pressed onto the axle shafts should be in the same spot on each axle.

Just measure them to see if they are the same.

ok, so then maybe the one bearing pulled out some from when i was trying to pull them out of the crappy housing

so if it is the right length then it should be ok to use on either side....

CrustyJeep · Jun 11, 2007

Boonie Buster said:
but the pinion isn't centered to the axle housing either.

That would be because whatever it came out of had the drivetrain offset to one side as well, so the axle would be designed to match.

That's common with 4WD stuff so the xfer case won't hit the frame on the drop side.

For example, my drivetrain is offset left about two inches (passenger drop), and the pinion is offset right just a little (equal length shafts), so the D/L dog leg is over two inches.