All righty. Long story short, I'm doing a front subframe swap on my car. Front suspension and whatnot from an '87 Sport. So, what this means is that I have 5x4.5" wheels up front. Problem is, the GSL rear end isn't 5x4.5".

So basicially four questions.

First, is it possible to get custom made axles for it *anywhere*? I know it's possible to get such things for domestics, but I emailed Moser and they said they won't do custom axles for the Mazda. This is a long shot.

Second, is it possible to redrill the stock axles to the new bolt pattern, and if so would it still hold up to decent amounts of power? I'm not looking at going turbo, like, ever on this car but I damn well don't want anything breaking while I'm driving.

Thirdly, what's the flange to flange width of the stock rear? Okay, I don't really need to ask this one, but I don't feel like going outside, jacking up the car, pulling off the wheels, measuring, putting the wheels back on and letting it back down when it's this damn cold out. This is the "swap" part; if I can't get the stock axles to be the right bolt pattern, I'm looking at a Ford 7.5". No, not an 8.8, a 7.5; from what I've seen there's little chance I'm going to be breaking even the Mazda rear, and the 7.5 is reportedly 80 pounds lighter.

And fourth, any other way of doing this? I want the car to have the same boltpattern on all four wheels, disc brakes, and at least the ability to put an LSD in. I do not want to gain very much weight, and whatever solution *MUST* be able to stand up to driving / open tracking.

Thanks for reading this far, if you have.

 

Okay, so I'm replying to my own damn thread. Hush, I'm going to actually post information so it's not just a bump.

So, looking at things, it seems that the GSL-SE rear end is actually wider than the 12A rear! I could be wrong, but that's what it seems like. So, what this means is that even if I did get the stock rear end to the right boltpattern, the offset of the wheels would make them be tucked way too far under the fenders. Like, to the point of interfering with stuff.

Therefore, unless I'm wrong, new/modified axles for the stock rear end is an idea that goes in the trash can! If I had a GSL-SE rear end, that's different but... nope, don't have one.

Guess I'm down to the idea of fitting a Ford 7.5". I mean, I *could* get a GSL-SE rear end, then modify the axles but... well, you know, that seems kind of a stupid way to do things. It gets better. As stated in various places, the Fox body 8.8" is almost the exact right width... well... the 7.5" is the same width. Except for the SVO Mustangs, but those are rare anyway. There's more though. The 7.5" uses the same axles as the 8.8"! So I can get *any* 7.5" from the junkyard and turn it into a 5-lug one!

Brakes though. There's a lot of opinions on various ways to get disc brakes with the Ford axles, ranging from various years of Mustangs, to Lincoln discs, and so on. My idea is to see if the 2nd gen "hard suspension" brakes can be made to fit; I suspect they can. This particular choice is made because the 2nd gen in the junkyard I was cannabalizing still has the rear brakes, plus it would make things simple in terms of brake balance.

Thoughts?

 

a 80's ford mustang 8.8 should work perfect for you, you will have the 5x4.5, with the Gslse axle width. although it is not a bolt on. You will have to cut the mounts off the old axle and weld them to the ford one.

Im not sure on specific years models to use, search, the info is on this forum somewhere.

 

I'm not worried about fabrication at all, note I'm doing this because of an FC front subframe swap. If it comes to putting a Ford axle in, I'm likely going to fab a tri-link/panhard setup at the same time; seems senseless to go back and do it later.

Did mention in the first post that I'm leaning towards avoiding the 8.8" because of the added weight and the fact I doubt I'm going to have enough torque to break the 7.5". I'll probably reconsider if I break the 7.5" though... or if I don't take on any other car projects for a while after I get all the bugs worked out, get bored, and decide to go turbo.

 

The 7.5" from a mustang should hold up pretty good. I was using one in my mustang before i found a 8.8 for a good price but the 7.5 help up well behind a nice and stout motor.

 

Did anything actually come with the tall gears (4.10, or high 3s) stock, or should I just count on buying aftermarket ones? As funny as it would be to drive a 7 geared like a land speed record car...

 

the 90's 5 liters with the AOD came with 373's, the lowest stock one I can recall. I believe that is an 8.8 though. The ford rears are easy to decipher using the attached tag, if it is still there.

 

link for ranger axle info:http://www.therangerstation.com/Axles.html

 

Hmmm, that's useful. Heh. Looks like I may well end up with a rear axle made from parts cannabalized from 4 different vehicles.

 

8.8's fitted with a AOD tranny came with 3.27 and that is the lowest set of gears that you could get out of a fox body mustang.

Aftermarkert gears for these rear ends arn't that expensive, unlike for our cars.

matt

 

moser does make a 1st gen big nasty *** axel in 4x110 or 4x4.5(-se) there has been some talking on the turbo fb list a few weeks ago about them... i plan to upgrade the diff to a miata and then add the moser axels that should hold pretty well i think

 

Hmm. Well, on Friday I got a response to an email I sent the day before asking about 1st gen axles. "We do not make axles for the RX-7 application." *shrug*

Guess I'm just down to 3 donor vehicles, then... just looked up prices for new gears.

 

Have you read my write-up about the front subframe swap, I thought it might help.

 

well i guess the true technical thing is no its not a true rx7 axel... its 11mm longer than stock so it will fit right in the miata diff.
http://www.rx7.org/jes/axles.html

from the above link
"You can order axles direct from Moser Engineering @ 260-726-6689 for $295/pr. Reference the following invoice numbers so they know what to build. MAKE SURE YOU SPECIFY the length of the axle should be REDUCED from 13mm to 11mm longer than stock. If you forget, you will have to have a local shop cut 2 mm off each axle before installing...

293953 for SE axles
292383 for non-SE axles "

 

Yeah, I did back in the day, which was part of the genesis of the idea. It's kinda fun to figure things out though, as I'm sure you know.

Hmmm. Odd. They said it to mean they didn't make any axles in the correct spline to slot into the diff. I wonder what's up with that...

 

Hmmm... 80's mustang with 5x4.5.....ahh no. 74-93 mustangs had a 4 bolt lug pattern.

 

SVO? Hadda nitpick, I know the rest are 4 lug, and the SVOs are a different width anyway.

 

Just when you think you have all the right answers......