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I bought a ford 8.8 complete rear end from a wrecking yard a few weeks ago. It came out of a 92 exploder that was rolled over. The rear end of the truck was sitting in a wet spot with out wheels on it. I didnt want to crawl under it and read the tag on the cover to see what gears it had in it. The price was right or so I thought and I took a gamble on it and bought it anyway. Now that I got it at home I found it has 3.27s and its an open carrier. I was thinking about buying all the tools I needed to change the gear set and do some research install some kind of limited slip myself. Has anyone ever done this in a 8.8 and how hard should it be? Derek if you read this I know you know a thing or two about these rears and all info would be greatly appreciated.

Hey Gabe.. I have done gear swaps, I have a dial indicator/stand and such. I have not done a ford 8.8, but I have done other rears (GM 10 and 12 bolt) and I have the patience to get them setup correctly most the time! Im also looking at getting a small welder, and plan to narrow the ford rear I have myself.. I have never narrowed a rear myself, but after seeing two of them done im ready to tackle one myself. My buddy has a huge Miller 220 high amp MIG for final welding, but with my own small MIG I can at least tack stuff myself alot easier than borrowing my boss' welder.

Soon as my buddy Lee finishes building his new house I will be able to move cars around and get my truck over to his shop to start getting the cage in. Right now the rain has put a stop to it.

After the holidays I plan on hooking up with you to borrow your tube bending expertise, and roll cage knowledge and see what you need a hand with on your truck.

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76 Daily driver (SOLD)
73 LUV (rusting away at the moment)
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63 Nova
74 Camaro

cool deal. Let me know when you need my bender I just let a friend borrow it but he should be done with it by tommorow, not a big deal he just lives down the street so I can snatch it up any time. Im in need of a traction device of some sort for my 8.8 if you have one you want to get rid of or know someone that has one let me know.

Well I was just going to weld up some slapper bars from some stock square tube.. Im getting some 2x3 tubing for my cage outriggers, Ill just get some extra to make a couple sets of traction bars.. That and some 3/8" plate is all we need. Yours has the huge 3.250" axle tubes too. Ill give you a call to see where your at with your rear.. Trailer supply on eastside road can custom make the U-bolts for about 13 bucks i think.. Im going shopping for a welder hopefully next week, well see. I found a place mail order that has spring pearches for 10 bucks a set, or redding 4x4 carries 2.5" ones for 20. So is your bender hydraulic or the long handle kind? That would be awesome. Well back to the holiday stuff, later!

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LUV Truck Desserter!
76 Daily driver (SOLD)
73 LUV (rusting away at the moment)
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63 Nova
74 Camaro

My bender is hydraulic. Its actually kind of a pain to use if you are trying to make a sharp bend. Its been a while since I have used it so my bending skills are probably a little on the rusty side, I will have to see if I have any tubing left over from my last project and give it a test drive. Depending on when you want to do it and some carefull scheduling on my part I might have acess to a bigger and better bender from my work. Slapper bars are a bit mysterious to me I have never used them and never really ever looked at a set. Do they really help? I have heard people say they do and I have heard people say they are just for looks. I have had some thoughts about trying to build some but havent decided to yet because of my lack of experiance in that area. Well I think its going to be another one of those busy stressful days where everyone wants to pull you in 57 different directions and there wont be enough time to get anything done. Talk at you later.

For the money slapper bars are hard to beat. It's not uncommon to see slapper bars under 9 second street cars these days, and I have seen guys go 1.3 60" times. For more money the caltracs are the best bolt on just because they are so EASY to adjust. I think I had to tweak the ones on my nova once, and it launches hard and straight everytime. Slapper bars can be a bit more challenging to tune at the track. But if your tubbing, then you might as well hang some ladder bars or a 4-link IMO.

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LUV Truck Desserter!
76 Daily driver (SOLD)
73 LUV (rusting away at the moment)
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63 Nova
74 Camaro

I was thinking about tubbing my truck but I think that its going to have to wait for a while. If all my calculations are correct I should be able to fit a 10 inch wheel and tire under my truck with my 8.8. I think that when I get a set of 10 inch slicks my truck shouldnt have any major traction problems. I guess I will find out one day when I get it all put together.

Im sure ill end up tubbimg mine as well. Im pretty partial to the small tire street car heads up classes, so when I get a class nailed down I will do more tweaks to the rear. I think im going to try to make it out to the Turlock swap meet at the end of Jan. Have you ever been out there? Oh are you going to narrow that 8.8?

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LUV Truck Desserter!
76 Daily driver (SOLD)
73 LUV (rusting away at the moment)
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63 Nova
74 Camaro

No Im not even going to narrow it. I found 10 inch wheels with 6 inches of back spacing. My tires in the rear allready hang out or the wheel opening about an inch and a half with the 8.8 I should be about the same maybe a half inch more Im not that concerend about the rear tires sticking out that much. My actuall plan was to get it rolling on something strong enough that I could get slicks on and then test and tune from there and eventually have it finished with a narrowed 9" with coil overs and a four link. who knows maybe with the right set up and running 10'' slicks that will be all I need. I have never been to any swap meets, seems like I have heard alot of stories about people practicaly stealing stuff they want tho.

Oh ok. As long as the tire tread doesn't stick out farther than an inch you should be ok. I think NHRA will give you crap for hanging the tire out the wheel well too far, or if it can cut the tire. Maybe someone that has pushed the limit will chime in. But you can also cheat and roll the fender lips out to make the 1 inch mark lol. And far as traction goes, you can hook well on a ten inch tire! - I got alot of parts out at that swap meet, heck half the stuff on my Nova is from that swap meet, who can afford shiney new parts these days.

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LUV Truck Desserter!
76 Daily driver (SOLD)
73 LUV (rusting away at the moment)
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63 Nova
74 Camaro

LOL I know a thing or 2 about a thing or 2 when it comes to stretching the openings. When I get serious about taking my truck to the track every thing will be legall. I like to play with my projects while Im working on them or else I lose interest and then things get thrown away and I start something else. Does the NHRA say anything about fender flares?

Hey Derek I just learned how to post pics on here and found some pics of the cage in my last car I built.

Looks good , also looks like a heck of a lot of work! Is it me or is the halo bar out of whack? By the way (sent you a pm) I now own a engine hoist as of last night. It folds up and it works great! had to load and unload five motors this morning with it.

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LUV Truck Desserter!
76 Daily driver (SOLD)
73 LUV (rusting away at the moment)
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63 Nova
74 Camaro

yeah the halo was out of whack I ordered a kit from speedway motors that came with the halo, door bars and the main hoop. Most of the pieces werent bent right or even or a little bit tweaked. I didnt follow the recomendations like level the chassis first like I should have either, the car wasnt even close to being level so I didnt realize it was out of whack until I rolled the car out of the shop. I fixed it up right before I welded the roof on and painted everything. On top of that I did every thing myself. LOL you should have seen me when I did the door bars I had a come along and some rope holding it all together so i could tack it together.