New Rear End

[GreeneRS]

So I had my car up on the lifts this past weekend to change the oil, as I walked down the car everything was spotless not a drop anywhere until I reached the back, I have a pretty good leak back there which I am guessing is the rear pinion seal. I see this as a blessing because I now I have a reason to buy a new rear end.

My question to all the very smart people of Insane is what all would I need for a successful rear end replacement? I have been looking at rear ends on American Muscle and they have one that I want....

http://www.americanmuscle.com/ford-31spline-88-lsd.html

I have also been looking at getting the Ford Racing 4.10's to go with it, but what is everything else that I would need? Any advice would be great, links would help even more. Don't have pockets lined with gold but I am willing to spend some money for this just can't spend too much.

[trueblue02]

New 31 spline axles will be needed, axle bearings, gear install kit, friction modifier, and I think it takes at least 4 quarts of gear oil. There may be more because I am not one of the smart people.LOL

[Intmdtr]

FRPP is a good way to go. i would also consider replacing your diff cover with an aluminium one. this will help strengthen your rear end as well as providing good looks too.

[GreeneRS]

Thanks for the advice, I might go ahead and purchase these closer to the end of the week and work on it this weekend.

[einehund]

as a side note on the diff cover...some covers allow more fluid (bigger interior volume) which helps keep the rear gear temps down a little, thus prolonging gear/diff life.

[poneyexpress]

Post up if you have 50 post on here you can get the insane mustangs discount code for American muscle, it's another 6%. Every lil bit helps.

[already7]

7 more posts and he's in there for the discount!

[GreeneRS]

Well I have to a tleast make sure the posts are of some merit. I would hate to post 7 stupid posts for a discount. I will try and see what I can do before this weekend. Thanks again though for everyone's help. As far as the rear-end if I was to purchase everything how difficult is the whole process of building the new rear end, then pulling the old and putting the new one on? I have heard that messing with the gears can be quite tricky.

[J&SPolishing]

Setting up gears isn't very hard. You need an inch/lb torque wrench to set the pinion preload and a dial indicator to set the back lash on the ring gear. There are a couple good articles you can google. You will also need a press to press on the inner pinion bearing, and press on the carrier bearings. Crushing the crush sleeve is always a chore. I've had a few where you could crush them with an impact wrench and others where I had to buy the pinion wrench from Summit and use a breaker bar with a jack handle as a cheater bar. I don't recommend it, but I have reused the old crush sleeve, set the preload a little lighter. A pinion depth guage i helpful but not required, most of the FMS gears you can use a .030 pinion shim and the pattern will be fine on the gears. When i did alot of Motive gears, i used a depth guage made the install quicker. I also opened up the inside of a new inner pinion bearing so i wouldn't have to press the bearing on and off to get the right depth. Once I knew what shim I needed I pressed the bearing on that i was going to use.

If you are doing a 31 spline upgrade, buy new ABS rings for the axles. The old ones will come off but usually break.

It also helps to have a spare cross pin and cross pin bolt. The cross pin bolt has a bad habit of breaking at the worse possible moment and you have to grind the top of the cross pin and knock it out with a hammer. You can only get these parts from the dealer.

Good luck, if you have any questions, just ask.

[GreeneRS]

Thanks that was a very helpful reply, I never thought of the ABS rings or the cross pin and bolt. I will search through google to see if I can find some good detailed guides. If I have any questions I will be sure to send them your way.