[mercury267]

I have a '95 Mark VIII rear end, and a '94 SC trac-loc rear end.

For the time being I am rebuilding the trac loc and installing it in the Mark rear with a set of gears (3.73s to be exact). Then the whole rear is going to be installed in my '95 bird with SN95 IRS wheel hubs.

This is gonna be great for the time being, BUT I know that these rears are weak rears that tend to break at the wheel hub end of the shafts when hard torque are applied.

I want to begin working on a second rear but are concerned about a few things:

1- Will a 31 spline Explorer center fit in the Mark VIII housing?

2- Shouldn't I be looking at after market limited slip units for such a rear? and if so which ones are considered "good" for drivetrains exposed to a lot of torque?

3- I am presuming custom axles will need to be made BUT what do I do about the IRS wheel hubs for such a rear???

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Thomas]

use 03 Cobra hubs. They have 31 splines. The downside is that they are 5x114mm or 5x4.5", where as ours are 5x108mm or 5x4.25. This means you'll either need to have the cobra hubs redrilled for our bolt pattern, or convert to mustang pattern wheels.

The Cobras also have IRS with this 31 spline, but the axles are too long, I believe. Maybe you could call a CV Axle company, like A1 Cardone, and see if they can combine they center shaft of the mn12 with the end splines of the cobra. Or you could just take both of them apart and see if they'd fit together, if you know how the inside of an axle works, it's actually very simple.

-Thomas

 

[mercury267]

use 03 Cobra hubs. They have 31 splines. The downside is that they are 5x114mm or 5x4.5", where as ours are 5x108mm or 5x4.25. This means you'll either need to have the cobra hubs redrilled for our bolt pattern, or convert to mustang pattern wheels.

The Cobras also have IRS with this 31 spline, but the axles are too long, I believe. Maybe you could call a CV Axle company, like A1 Cardone, and see if they can combine they center shaft of the mn12 with the end splines of the cobra. Or you could just take both of them apart and see if they'd fit together, if you know how the inside of an axle works, it's actually very simple.

-Thomas

That is AWESOME news that the 03 Cobra's have 31 spline wheel hubs! I will pick up a set now to make sure that I have them! As long as the wheel hubs are made I don't mind spending money on custom axles as long as that is the only "custom" expense there is going to be!!!

Dude, you just made my YEAR!!! Thank you!

 

[nickmckinney]

I thought the 03+ Cobra still had the same 28 spline at the outer hub and a 31 spline for the inner diff?

 

[miller1995]

I thought the 03+ Cobra still had the same 28 spline at the outer hub and a 31 spline for the inner diff?

This is correct, 28 spline on the outside 31 on the inside.

-Miller

 

[Thomas]

oh, no crap? I thought it was 31 on both.

Well, C.W.I. makes these kick *** axles in any length, but you'd still have to find a 31 spline hub.

And here, after about half an hour of looking on the internet, I found some 31 spline axles with hub upgrade. Contact them about getting just the hubs, or maybe custom length axles.

http://www.driveshaftshop.com/item148325.ctlg

-Thomas

 

[mercury267]

Back to the drawing boards I suppose.

 

[_95badbird]

I was quoted around $1700 for custom axles...they were level 5 axles, upgraded hubs in any bolt pattern......way to much..

 

[Thomas]

not when you consider that the hubs are machined out of a block of steel It aint gonna be cheap.

I do kinda like those axles with u-joints though. You break one, you replace it. And they are THICK (hollow of course) but they will take a lot of torque. I just dont know wether or not having no length-wise movement would work or not. Since the CV axles have that.

-Thomas

 

[mercury267]

Yeah, there is no way I am dropping 1700 into this rear. It is WAY overkill on what I intend to accomplish with this car. If my engine design is going to produce to much torque than this just isn't going to be my major "go fast" car. I would like a little bit stronger axle, but I think a larger diameter will just need to be the ticket... and motors producing more than 450 HP might just not have to be in the future of this one MN12. I might just need to live with body mods and the six speed conversion and have a really nice driver. I can never built the "perfect" car that looks great, handles great, and is strong enough to handle full out hard drag racing. I'd spend so much money on that one car I couldn't ever own another car. I think I'd rather have this be a VERY fun street car and call it a day. If I don't go overboard with this T-bird, I can afford other projects built more specific for different purposes like drag racing and so forth.

 

[Mod Motor Cat]

Try seeing what these guys are able to do for you. I'd remembered periodically seeing them mentioned all over the Mustang boards for the last couple of years or so. One day I decided to check them out and found out they were located right here in my home town. I dropped into their shop to talk to the owner to see what he could do for my MN12, had I decided to step up the power levels and although I can't remember what he quoted me, it was still very reasonable for the amount of work that went into their axles. He talked with me about it for well over half and hour and was a super nice guy to boot. Their stuff has a great rep for quality and holding up under serious abuse.

http://www.axlesystem.com/


It certainly couldn't hurt to give them a call anyway. :zdunno: