8.8 swap

clair.davis said
Excellent thread, I'm watching this one closely! Back when I was on the fence about going 8.8 or 8.75, prices around DFW for a decent exploder 8.8/3L73/DB rear were ALWAYS in the $6-800 range. Couldn't find anything close to a reasonable price, so I went early-B 8.75 instead. Had I known I was going to be so committed to Ford wheel sets, I probably would have stuck it out with my 8.25 for a while longer until prices came down on the 8.8's. For my uses, the exploder is about the right width already, but some others in Rangers I think are a little narrower - and equal-length side to side? Been too long since I researched those. Hard to beat the exploder for a full-meal-deal rear axle package, though, isn't it?

Nice work!

Clair

Thanks for the feed back. My understanding is that the ranger's come with either the 7.5 or the 8.8 (4.0 only). The 8.8 is the same length as the exploder, but the 7.5 is 1 1/2" shorter. Kind of a strange deal but that's the way it seems to be. The Ranger 8.8 only came with 28 spline axle (except newer F4X models) and had a smaller load rating then the exploders.
$6-800...you must live back east? When I started looking for this rearend there were 7 different explorers being parted out on craigslist. I almost bought a whole truck for $200 just to get the rearend out of it!:toothy10:

Jake