86 12 Brutus Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 I don't know a whole lot about rear ends with the exception of maintainence and such. I think i may have asked this question before, but i see a whole bunch of people talking back and fourth on the forum here lately that i haven't seen and everybody seams quite knowledgable. So here goes. My parts truck, 88 f150 has an 8.8 rear, same as Brutus but with the exception the parts truck has 5.03 gears in it. This rear is fast as a scaulded dog and believe it or not, that 300 with the 5 speed and that rear blew the doors off a high end vette on airline highway. This truck is brutally fast, and of course cant pull anything beccause of the rear. I have a 79 Ranchero with a highly built 351W. It's a 351L7M Keith Black interceptor. I think the only thing that is ford is the crank shaft. The Block is a man o war and is cast, not honed 90 over and displaces 427 cubic in. it was the ones used in Germany on the autobon. The top speed of this thing is 245 miles per hour. So just in case you are wondering, a 1979 ranchero begins to lift and fly at 160mph and the scary thing is the pedal was only slightly past halfway down I want to put the rear end from the truck in the ranchero. it looks like it would fit, but looks can be deceiving. but am wondering if i can just take the whole rear end out and put it in the ranchero Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 Doesn't the 79 Ranchero have rear coil springs? If it does then all the attaching points are completely different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86 12 Brutus Posted October 31, 2020 Author Share Posted October 31, 2020 Doesn't the 79 Ranchero have rear coil springs? If it does then all the attaching points are completely different. yes it does have coil springs. I got a good look, it wont work. was worth a try though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rembrant Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 My parts truck, 88 f150 has an 8.8 rear, same as Brutus but with the exception the parts truck has 5.03 gears in it. Did somebody put those gears in the 8.8? It wouldn't have come from Ford with those. Is it an off-road truck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 My parts truck, 88 f150 has an 8.8 rear, same as Brutus but with the exception the parts truck has 5.03 gears in it. Did somebody put those gears in the 8.8? It wouldn't have come from Ford with those. Is it an off-road truck? I assumed that was a typo. But maybe not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86 12 Brutus Posted October 31, 2020 Author Share Posted October 31, 2020 I assumed that was a typo. But maybe not? the tag says 5.03. on the rear. This thing was blindingly fast and couldn't pull anything. to be honest, i have no clue as to why it would have been put in a truck. When we were pulling the ranchero on a trailer, it barely made it to the top of the bridge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rembrant Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 the tag says 5.03. on the rear. This thing was blindingly fast and couldn't pull anything. to be honest, i have no clue as to why it would have been put in a truck. When we were pulling the ranchero on a trailer, it barely made it to the top of the bridge I'm not saying it's impossible, but by 1988, 99% of these 8.8 rear ends had 3.08 or 3.55's in them. 5+ could possibly have been added at some point, but it wouldn't come from the factory tagged like that, not on an F150. 5.03's would put the inline 300 into it's redline on the highway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Wyatt Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 yes it does have coil springs. I got a good look, it wont work. was worth a try though If the rear axles are the same length or close enough to not cause any wheel and tire clearance issues, there isn't any reason you couldn't just get the mounting brackets welded to that axle to mount it in your Ranchero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Wyatt Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 If the rear axles are the same length or close enough to not cause any wheel and tire clearance issues, there isn't any reason you couldn't just get the mounting brackets welded to that axle to mount it in your Ranchero. I re-read the post as well and I don't want to sound like a know-it-all or come off a a smart-elect, but I would think if it were 5.03's that the little 200 ci six or the 2.3 wouldn't have had much if any trouble towing. As a point of reference, in gear ratios the higher the number the slower your top speed will be but you would have great stump pulling power. And the lower the number, the higher your top speed will be at the expense of pulling power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86 12 Brutus Posted November 1, 2020 Author Share Posted November 1, 2020 I re-read the post as well and I don't want to sound like a know-it-all or come off a a smart-elect, but I would think if it were 5.03's that the little 200 ci six or the 2.3 wouldn't have had much if any trouble towing. As a point of reference, in gear ratios the higher the number the slower your top speed will be but you would have great stump pulling power. And the lower the number, the higher your top speed will be at the expense of pulling power. The truck has a 300 inline 6. fuel injected with a mazda 5 speed trans. the gears were 5.03, this truck was very very very fast all it was good for was speed, but with a gear ratio like that, thats all you are going to get is speed which is why i was wondering about putting it in my ranchero. I often wondered why, it made no sense to me either. It smoked a corvette down airline highway, and i mean tore it up bad. so bad in fact the guy stopped me and ask what was under the hood and he didn't believe me, i had to show him. When we had the ranchero on a car trailer, it had a bit of a time taking off, once up to speed which took forever it did ok, but climbing the bridge, by the time we got to the top, the truck would only go 35 mph. Another time we had it loaded down with plywood and some other stuff we picked up from Home Depot and it struggled to do it. And now with Brutus, 300 , yfa, c6 and 3.08's this will pull anything. that was alot of the reason when the transmission went out, i did some research on putting another trans in it, but what good is a truck that cant pull anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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