DragStuff

Well the 7.5 rear end in the Ranger finally gave out. I have a 9 inch housing that I'm going to narrow. I also have a complete 9 3/4 inch rear end from a 66 Lincoln, is there anything from the 9 3/4 that I could use in the 9 inch. It has 31 spline axles but the bearings look different from the ones I've seen before (they're sealed bearings). Thanks for any help.

Yes, The 31 spline axles interchange, the housing does also, I'm not sure about the backing plates/readily availible brake parts. The problem is with the gears, posi parts, ect. They are dead horses.
If I was starting from a clean sheet of paper. I would figure the housing width, then use either big or small bearing sealed axle bearings & matching Explorer or Crown Vic disc set-up. With the cost of shipping axles & re-splining, I would opt for new ones. Strange, Moser or even Yukon will be able to fix you up. Allot of times, using something "just because I have it" doesn't really pay off in the long run. Just my thoughts, Lorne

go with a aftermarket carrier or at least a nodular carrier from ford if not, KABOOOOOM!!!!

V8, What is the power level of this thing? The 7.5 rear & the word "finally" in the same sentence, made me believe this was a nice street/strip truck maybe in the high 12's-low 13's or so. Not to be argumentative Rustbucket, but you don't need to worry about the carrier, case, ect. until long after that unless it's a manual trans. Even 28 spline axles will live a long life at the weight of a Ranger. A 8.8 from a newer Ranger may be the all-round best bang for the buck. Here's a picture of my brother's 460 powered Mustang weighing 3660lbs. It has gone high 10's on spray, high 11's on motor & has over 350 passes on the rear in this car & was in another Mustang going low 12's before this one, with a 100 or so passes. It is an old Bronco 9" with stock 28 spline axles (re-drilled to 4 bolt, originally he used the factory wheels) & a stock case, posi carrier, pinion support, gears, yoke, ect. Now don't misunderstand, I don't think this is good or right & have mentioned to him more than once "We should change those axles to 31 spline & add a better pinion support." In a lighter, automatic (non-trans brake) vehicle, it's not needed in most cases. Just my Two cents, Lorne

I'm not to sure of the power, probably 325 or so. My best pass was 12.59 at 108 with 1.8 60 foot. Along with a new rear end this winter, I've got a 125 horse shot to go in. No trans brake, but I only want to do this once. I've settled on a Dutchman housing and axle package,as it works out cheaper than sending out the stuff I already have. I'm still thinking about where to get the 3rd member.The 7.5 took 22-2500 launches OK, but she went bang with a 3200 launch.

At that power level your probably fine as long as you aren't getting axle hop. My 31 spline 9" with street gears lasted about 400 passes in my 3200lbs nova. When I did get my car to really hook, 60' in the 1.3x range the 31 spline axles lasted 8 passes. The stock 3rd member lasted about 40 passes after that. So everyone is right, but i would atleast look for a nodular case if it were me, a couple hundred more now is way better than replacing the case, spool, gears, pinion suport ect if it does go boom. I also went with dutchman stuff for my car this time around, have used it in our street stuff for years and great customer service.

Ive never broke a axle and I still use 31 spline mosers. My problem was the chunk blowing out of the front. The stock ford, non nodular carrier wont support much hp. You can get a strange from jegs for just a couple hundred bucks. In my case, when the rearend blew it ruined the driveshaft and almost sent the shaft through the floor and destroid my new gears. It ended up costing me over a $grand to repair. I havent had any problems with the cheap strange unit.
Mine went out on the 3rd launch with nitrous. My car weighs 2950 lbs and averages a 1.30-1.34 sixty ft. To add insult to injury, when the rear end blew up, my rpm's shot through the roof and took out a head gasket.
Hind sight is 20/20, if I only wanted to do it once, replace the carrier.
good luck

Rustbucket, the same thing happened to me. I forgot to list the drive shaft in the thing you have to replace. The bad thing for me is I bought new 31 spine axles when they broke, I didnt have the funds to upgrade the spool,bearings...ect to 35 spline stuff at the time and two races later the 3rd member went. Luckey for me I had a 8000 rpm chip in the box so I didnt hurt the motor.