Just installed my new 8.8
 

I bought an axle off of a friend that just bought a 98 cobra.

He got it with the deal and I came and looked at it offered him 300 bucks, and took it home.

He said it came out of a 98 GT, but the caliper mounts were EXTRA tall, so I guess those brackets I have are for cobra brakes. Anyways I had to switch those out.

I had to take both rears apart, and I found out that rear I bought was completely built with ford racing gears and its got a 3.73 in it. It has the squiggly T-lock in the center of it.

He seen me in town the other day getting my lube and oils for the rear and came up to me n said, " I just went to the drag strip and got offered 800 bucks for that rear end i sold you from the previous owner"

So obviously I got a really good deal and somebody out there really wants that rear I got.

I've learned alot of things.

I had one problem. and that was the caliper mounts, which you should always check before doing the swap. Cause I got my 8.8 mounted and then the brake setup didnt work, so i had to remove everything with it in the car, and did an easy job on my 7.5 while it was out of the car.

I had a problem sliding the axle pin back in because spyder gears didnt want to line up, but i rotated the axles and they worked fine.

Anyways, after driving it, I'm not too impressed with a 3.73 in an automatic. But It'll be there for when my auto goes out and I add a 5speed.

Just figured I'd vent after the 3 day job. Thanks for all the help guys, and especially redneck.

That is why we tell people 4.10's for an auto car for sure!

Glad to hear you got everything straightened out.

Really happy that worked out for you. It's a lot simpler in there than it would seem isn't it.

Yup! Just the 8.8 is a little trickier to deal with cause the T lock, it puts alot of pressure on the spyder gears and when u roll the differential they want to move out of place just as much as a piece of paper thick and its hard to get the pin back in.

Nice work man. Yeah I sometimes wish I would have gone with 4.10's too, they really are the way to go with an automatic. I enjoyed now having a posi more than anything else with the swap.

I've drove it all day today and it feels great. Just my speedo is bad off.. Sometimes 5mph sometimes 8mph. Can dealerships calibrate them?

I love the posi, I can take out of places now quick and not one wheel peel.

Also I'm more impressed with the 3.73 than I thought. Its really good for the hills around here. But still 4.10 for more performance.

I put around 60FL Oz's of grease in it, I think thats what it calls for.

My spacers should be in soon..

Also driving without that warped axle feels sooo great now!!

I had 3:73 gears in my auto and was happy with it. I drove all highway and interstate and wanted to keep the rpms down a little bit. 4:10 gears are the way to go in an auto though. In my 5spd I think the 3:73 gears are going to be perfect becuase I find that I want the rpms a little higher on average, I also drive less highway/interstate miles now.

Don't you have a tuner?

No, But I need to get one. But only the livewire looks interesting to me. I'll probably order one soon. Any reccomendations on which one?

http://www.americanmuscle.com/ford-s...tool-9410.html

if you dont have 500$ to dish out atm.

Fuck the speedo thing, id just bite the bullet and buy SCT Xcal3 for 380.

3.90's for auto.

Fuck that livewire crap. Get a xcal 2 or 3 and move on. They all do the same shit. It's the tune file inside that matters!

those larger brake brackets you have are worth a couple bucks through ebay. I'm sure there is someone out there trying to piece together a cobra rear brake set up on the cheap.

I drove around for about a year with my gear ratio not corrected. My car shows more miles on the odometer than the car actually has. My car has 96k miles showing. I installed gears at 52k miles and I drove 15k miles before I had it corrected. So, if someone feels like factoring all of that info than let me know how many ACTUAL miles are on my car, k thx bye.

My car is an auto too. I dont think I ever bounced the limiter from late shifts but it definately shifted around 6k rpms. Gt's have a 5800 redline, I think?

Sweet. I'll prob pick me a Xcal3 up. Cause even if the ford dealership could do the calibration theyd prob charge out the ass.

And yeah I'll sell those cobra mounts. All they are is just taller versions of the stock ones. What are they worth?

I know I love my 8.8. Recently had it re-built as the clutches were slipping.

Give the parts department at a stealership a call and tell them the part number off of the brackets you have for a price inquiry. That will give you an idea of how much to charge for them. If I remember correctly they are about 150-160 for the set or each.

I've been fooling around with my new wheelspacers, and those things are SHITTY AS THEY GET. I think theyve caused me to glaze my rear rotors. All I know is they got FUCKING hot after driving it with them, and they made my car shake like a bitch........... I'm gonna finger tighten every single lug and see what I get.

44k - ratio-delta% (if you have 4.10's then about 21%) + original miles = ~86700 actual miles.

Why would you finger tighten them dude? Get a fuckin impact wrench and torque them down hard. I dunno about you guys but when it comes to lugnuts, i torque the shit out of them cause i know it wont hurt and i know i dont have the strength to break them.

The ONLY wheel spacers that work without stripping your shit is going to be maximum motorsports. Wheel spacers in general though are junk.

Lug nuts only need about 90 ft-lbs.

Okay well, good news and bad news.

The wheelspacers arent shitty as originally thought, thats the good news.

The bad news is, both axles are warped. I jacked my car up, said F it, and put it in gear and watched the axles spin. You can even see the ABS ring spin with a little warp to it. SO with those axles being warped, the wheel spacers were multiplying how warped they feel. I took em off today and It drove much better than it did yesterday. also my brakes are chirping alot because the rotors being fouled up inside the calipers.

I gotta get axles............................... Found a pair of 94-98 28 spline ones from LMR for 190 with 10 studs. So I'll be getting that soon.

your axles from your 7.5 will work.

Its a 98 rear end so they'd be too long, but I bought this whole rear end because my 7.5's axles were warped.

I ordered me a set of 94-98 28 spline axles with studs for 200$$.

Just gonna have a fight getting that ABS ring off.

Get the xcal to fix the speedo. If you get it from AM youll get free tunes as well. Im not sure how much of a difference it will make in your v6, but in my gt the tune was well worth it. Plus you can clear and read DTC's

cool, ya i think with the 99-04, yall should go with 4.10's cuz dont yall have 3.27's stock???

i know for me 3.73's were perfect because my stock gears were 2.73's

Just installed my new axles. They were YUKON axles.

The install went AMAZINGLY PERFECT.

All my studs pressed in fine, but i had to kill 4 lug nuts.

My abs ring believe it or not popped off EASY. -- I knocked all the old studs out of the old axles, and put a 1/4 inch drive extension thru the stud holes and knocked around in a circle till it fell off, and i pressed it back on using 3 c-clamps and a vise to hold it for me. It looked retarted but its on.

My rear end grease came out clean, there were a couple metal shavings on a magnet in the back of the rear, but this is a freshly rebuilt rear with a new diff unit and all that.

Topping it all off with royal purple tomorrow, and buying 4 lug nuts.

Thanks for the support and ideas everyone! And special thanks to Redneck!

Holy shit after I did all this, I just found out that 7.5 and 8.8 rears use the same axles............................................. .....

I wouldnt have done this swap if I had known that!! Because AM listed the moser axles as 8.8 only. WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. I guess I shouldve asked.

But anyways, I'm happy to have a fully built 8.8 that makes my car faster.