[retiredfireguy]

Ok, I pulled the axles and removed all the center section bolts, but the darn thing refuses to come apart. This 9" is from a '70 Lincoln Mk III, and has apparently not been disassembled since new. What is the best way to break the center section loose without doing any damage? Thanks.

[ericnova72]

From the factory there are copper washers under each of the carrier nuts, these get swaged into the threads of the studs to further seal things up when the nuts are tightened at the factory, so make sure all of these have been peeled off/dug out of the stud's threads. From there, you may have to take a large blunt screwdriver or thin prybar and drive it between the case and the housing to get it to pop loose.

[retiredfireguy]

OK...Thanks for the advice. I removed the copper washers, and then broke it free with the BFH. After that, it was just a matter of levering it off...And cleaning up all the black oil that poured out when I lost control of the housing. Guess my homemade stand could use improvement.

[big gear head]

I hate taking a 9 inch apart for the first time. Those washers make it hard to get the chunk free. I usually end up driving a chisel in between the case and housing.

[ojh]

One thing you might want to check, that may be a 9 3/8" rear. They look identical and the housing is the same. Easy way is to measure ring gear or the bearing saddles, the 9 3/8 had 3.25" inside diameter bearings, the largest stock is something like 3.062. Those rears are special heavy duty rears only (as far as i know) available in the lincoln. They have a slightly different pinion support and there are no gears available for those rears. They're bullet proof but parts are not interchangeable (except for the 3.250 bearing is the same as the 9" race rears with 35 or 40 spline axles).
Just giving you heads up to check before you spend money ordering stuff for it.

[retiredfireguy]

Thank you for that additional info.

[big gear head]

I got one of the 9 3/8 rear ends out of a '70 Thunderbird with the 429 engine. I also got some from big Mercurys. The one in the T Bird was posi with 3.00 gears.

[retiredfireguy]

I haven't really checked, but I believe this is a 9". It came out of a '70 Mk III. It has 2.80 gears (at the moment), limited-slip, and 31-spline axles. Still had the factory aluminum tag hanging on it. Thanks again.

[big gear head]

The tag will tell you if it's a 9 inch or not. The number right after the gear ratio is the ring gear size.

[retiredfireguy]

Oops - This could be a problem...The tag says the following:
WFN-G 9HD
2L80 9 . 3 412A
Does that mean it's a 9.3" ring gear?

[big gear head]

Yea, looks like it.

[retiredfireguy]

Hmmm...So now what do I do? This is the axle I was going to use in a '29 roadster project. I figured I could live with the 2.80 gears for a while, but the limited-slip unit seems to be froze up. Not sure how to deal with that. Can't really afford to buy a nine-inch right now. Any suggestions?

[ericnova72]

A complete 9" pumpkin(centersection) can be used in place of the 9 3/8 pumpkin, all you have to do is make sure the axle spline count is the same. The housing is the same, you will notice that the only difference is the clearance notches in the pumpkin mounting flange to clear the bigger ring gear diameter.

[SSedan64]

Yep it's the 9-3/8" rear >> http://www.fordification.com/tech/rearends_ford08.htm what is the Skid Control?

[big gear head]

That's right, the only difference is the chunk. The axles and housing are the same except for the clearance notches. You can use any 31 spline 9 inch chunk in the 9 3/8 housing and use the same axles.