My 76/77 Buick regals going to the darkside!

And now I am done welding. Plenty of grinding to do though.
While the floor was open, I took the opportunity to change the shifter detent. Before I had PRNDM12. I dont need 1 and 2 so I moved to the outer hole making it easier to shift into gear. Niw I have PRNDM. The manual gear will be for when I add paddle shifters.

Last but not least is the rear passenger foot wells. Yup, more holes so more sheet metal work. Those should be much easier since they are half the size and not complicated shapes. I will tackle those on my 2 extra days off next week.

 

And after about an hour fifteen, rear passenger floor is welded in.

1.paper template

2.cut metal

3. Bead roll and english wheel a little

4. Screw to old metal

5. Cut with plasma cutter.

6.weld in.

 

Found two ford 8.8 posi units at the yard today. Now I just gotta get the stomach to go get them in the mud. One is a 4.10 unit, the other is the 3.73 that I want. I should be able to quickly get them with my cordless cutoff wheel, a few sockets and a sawzall.

Cut the e brake cables, cut the brake lines before the rubber lines, cut the u bolts, remove the axle with drive shaft and cut or unbolt the driveshaft from the diff.


If I buy both axles, I have the option if I ever want to to build a nasty tire burner setup. Maybe I sell the second one with a "removal fee".


I might just get the one with the two wheels so I can drive it until I get the axles redrilled for gm 5x4.75 bolt pattern.


Too bad it is supposed to snow tomorrow. That sucks

 

Arrived at 1220. Left at 234. First unit 3.73 took about 50 min. Second 4.10 took 25 min. Hauling them to the front of the yard, paying and securing to the cargo carrier took the remaining 45 min.
Tools used-
Makita cordless cutoff and 2 wheels
Rigid multitool with sawzall attachment
1 mini sabre blade and 1 sawzall blade
Makita beast mode impact gun
3/4 and 13/16 sockets
Pry bar
Hammer
Adjustable crescent wrench
2 makita batteries fully charged
1 rigid battery fully charged.

That is it! I now own 2 ford 8.8 rear ends and will soon be executing amazing two wheel smoke shows!

 

So. Things changed and I have a plan.
I realized that my buick axle is wider than normal at 60.5 inches. The 8.8 is 59.625 inches. If I narrow the axle like most do, I will be at 56.75 inches which will bring the rear tires inward by 1.875 inches per side. I already hate the 3 inch gap as it is so that wont work. I could use a spacer/adapter but I honestly dont trust those.

So after much deliberation I figured out what to do. First I thought, use two long tubes (opposite of what is the normal two short tubes) but then my track width in the rear is 2 inch wider than the front (61.5in) which I hear causes handling issues. So more thought.....

Eureka!
I already need to drill the axle for buick 5x4.75 bolt pattern. The jig for that it like $130 shipped. I already have to cut and weld the axle tube too. So what I have decided is rather than spending the $130 on a jig that I might screw up anyway, and chance using wheel adapters, I am going to get two new axles made by Strange engineering that are 1 inch shorter than the long 8.8 axle (30.5 down to 29.5 inches). Then I will shorten the longer axle tube by 1 inch and lengthen the short axle tube by 1.875 inches. This will make both tubes the same and both axles the same. The only difference is that the entire axle will be back to 60.5 inches just like factory.

For those that are confused, normal procedure is to narrow an 8.8 since the passenger side axle tube is 2.875 inches longer. This makes the u joint/axle off center by 2.875 inches hence the reason to shorten it. Then you take a second short axle from the junk yard and voila! You have a narrowed 8.8.

My case will essentially using two long tubes and axles but subtracting 1 inch from both dimensions in order to achieve the factory 60.5 inches rather than the 62.5 inch as a result of using two long axles. This option will cost me $360 for a new forged axle from strange eng. And I can have it within a week and pick it up local. So realistically, I am spending only a couple hundo for new stronger axles with the correct bolt pattern already drilled.

My only other option would be to go find a later model crown vic with a centered diff and is already 62.5 inch. I wont do that because only certain years came with 31 spline axles. Most were 28 spline.

 

After a talk with someone I trust, I decided to just narrow the rear end as everyone else does and then use 2 inch adapters to change the bolt pattern to gm while also bringing the width back to factory. He says that as long as I use quality adapters that the bearing life will be better than my other plan.

So, I stripped the 3.73 axle down, verified that the gears look great and spent a very long time grinding and wire brushing rust off. I then got the axle tube all set for the cuts. I was too tired to keep going so I stopped there. I guess tomorrow I may narrow the darned thing and get it over with.

I have also decided that the best thing to do is to build an axle truss to add the upper 4 link bars since the explorer 8.8 does not come with ears like the gm 10 bolt. The axle truss will also add strength to the axle tubes. I got the design worked out and will soon build that.

 

And after gathering nerve to do it, I successfully got the rear end narrowed. I got the tube to within 1/16th of the other one. I an damned happy too. I have a ton of work to do before I can use the rear end. I was going to sell the 4.10 axle but I think I may hang onto it just in case I decide to run the 4.10 gears one day.

I am pooped from all the grinding though. More grinding to come though.

 

After re-measuring, I realize that my shortened axle tube is actually longer by....1/32 inch. Yeah, I would say mission accomplished!

 

Good for you! Did you use a jig that hold things straight while welding?

 

I used the two c-channel method. That and a ton of measuring and adjusting.

I got everything ready for welding the axle tubes to the diff. Its too late 1am or else I would fire up the tig and get cracking.

I also got a quote in process for Bora 2 inch bora wheel adapters to bring the wheels back to the factory track width.

And third thing is I got my wooden template made for the axle truss that I will build. Both sides will be mirror images of this template. I just need to decide what metal thickness I want to use. I have 1/2 here but it exceeds the clean cut capacity of my older hypertherm plasma cutter. I hate to have to cut with a grinder. My torch skills may just get tested for this one. I will have to drill the holes after I know where the upper 4 link brackets will be positioned.

I am hopeful that I can get this axle installed within the next few weeks. I will then "burn off" the remainder of the excess rubber on these old tires in preparation for new rubber.

 

Very cool. I trust good quality spacers.

 

Axle tubes are now tig welded to the diff.

 

Nice job!

 

Now were getting somewhere!
One 3/8in 4ft bar and one 1/4 in 12x12 plate of steel later and my axle truss is about 90% complete. Stopped working after I accidentally laid my bare arm down on the truss while trying to finish the last weld. Burned the crap out of my arm and pissed me off.

 

So, the progress on the 8.8 swap is slow because of the careful planning necessary to fit ford parts into a GM car while also having the complication of swapping a leaf spring axle with disc brakes into a coil spring car with drums and factory cast in ears for a 4 link. Add the change from 5x4.5 lug pattern to 5x4.75 pattern.


That said... I have the parts on the way to tackle the lug pattern change. Most folks would have just used adapters/spacers but I could not find anyone with quality adapters in stock. I did not want to wait a month so I went a different route. I ordered a jig to allow me to drill my own ford axles for the GM pattern and then I ordered two sets of GM spacers. I got both 1.5 inch and 2 inch since they had some scratched 2 inch ones at half price. The spacers ate T6061 aluminum and are hubcentric. If I had just used adapters, I would have had to wait up to a month to have them made. I cannot do that. So by next week I will have ford axles drilled to GM spec and adapters to bring the wheel back out to the corrected width.


https://www.titanwheelaccessories.c...s~yj_1-5-wheel-spacers&variant=29228484034583


https://www.hellsgatehotrods.com/shop/drill-guide/


Next up is getting the new upper ears fabricated on the ford 8.8. I am going to be ordering parts to weld to my new axle that will not only allow me to temporarily use my factory control arms but will also be compatible with new control arms that I will be fabricating. I am debating between a few styles of roto joints that will eliminate any binding of the axle inherent to rubber bushings. I am essentially future proofing the suspension in case I decide to do autocross or something. You must have a rearend that is free to rotate and is nimble.


Last but not least. I fabricated a couple gussets for the axle to further help this thing be super strong and will be welding them in tonight. I king of like the angled orientation so I think that is what I will go with.

 

I should do the same type of rear for my tubbed out Skylark with turbos.

 

And after 15 min of fitting and welding, the gussets are complete.

 

Sourcing the 8.8 is easy. Pulling it is easy. Transporting just 1 I assume would be easy.

So far it has not been hard. I am certain that The end result will be fantastico! I absolutely cannot wait to do a 2 wheel burnout! Maybe I will be able to actually race someone now that it will have some traction.

I still have not ruled out running the 4.10 gear either!

 

Yes it’s no issue for me to obtain one... I just need to practice my welding. My car is tubbed out so I would narrow it as well and do moser axles. My car is on leafs so that makes it even easier...

 

Wow! Leafs makes it a no brainer! Damn near bolt in.