8.8 Rears for swap?

Ford Racing sells new 8.8 housing that are a direct bolt-in for 79-93 mustangs.I think they come with axles or the differental,but check it out.

Ok,well find a Mustang you can pull one out of.Not sure of what other vehicals you can find the correct rear in,some on else will chime in.

Correct me if im wrong but i believe a 88 thunderbird turbo coupe has the trac-lok differential, it'll stick out more than your 7.5 about a 1" or so if i remember correctly

When I upgraded the supension and brakes on my '90 GT I used the rear end out of a '95. The only downside was that I needed to use the '95 wheels, not only for the bolt pattern (5lug) but also for the backspacing. I bought the rear from a yard for $225 and it already had 3.27gears. Be sure to inpspect the axles for straightness by rotating them a couple of times. Also, the dif. may need to be rebuilt in any used rear.

Been there and done that! With success!
Do the T-Bird Turbo coupe rear end swap. You get gears & disk brakes all in one package that is designed to work and not be a piece & patch together operation. The rear ends are running $125-$300 depending on what's available in your area.

Auto trans 87-88 Tbird Turbo Coupes come with 3.73 gears and manual Turbo Coupes come with 3.55 gears. I choose 3.55 since I do more highway driving. Both ratios have 10.5 disk brakes with vented rotors as standard equipment.

It takes 2 guys the first day to get the old rear end out and the new one bolted in place. It takes 1 guy another whole day to do the brakes.

You will need a several sets of fittings, I recommend that you get them from Matt90GT's website, http://www.svo73mm.cjb.net/. Read Matt's instructions thoroughly, everything you need to know about the brakes is all there. You need to be patient and follow all the internal links, and there are many of them.

You will need 2 fittings in the rear to adapt your old brake tubing to the TC disk brakes. The fittings go between the steel tube and the caliper brake hose. You will need another set of fittings to make a 2 port to 3 port adapter. To make life simpler, just buy the kits from Matt. You could piece them together, but it's not worth the time unless you work at an auto parts store with all the fittings ever made.

You will need to drill the quad shock mounting holes 2” below the holes drilled for the Turbo Coupe mounting points. The bolts are metric, so don’t loose them or the nuts. A 15/32” drill should be about the right size unless you have access to metric sized drill bits. Going without quad shocks is not an option unless you have aftermarket parts to soak up the wheel hop.

You will need a proportioning valve, Summit has one for $40 + shipping.

You will need a kit (FMS makes the part) to gut the stock proportioning valve, Summit also has that, about $10.

You will need a new master cylinder, see Matt's site and make you choice. I used a 94-95 Mustang master cylinder. Note that rebuilt 94-95 Mustang master cylinders do not come with a reservoir. That means a trip to the junkyard and some more money spent.

Your brake pedal may be very hard and almost impossible to lock up the brakes. I had to replace the front calipers with 73 mm calipers from a 91 Lincoln Mark VII to get the braking performance up to par.

Bleeding the brakes will require 2 people and some coordinated effort. I don’t recommend using you wife or girlfriend to pump the pedal – they get offended when you yell at them. I used a homemade power brake bleeder constructed from a garden sprayer and some fittings from Home Depot. It cost about $25 and was worth every penny.

See http://www.mustangcentral.net/tech/brake.html for help with the emergency brake - the stock setup tends to lock up and not release properly.

All in all I have been very pleased with the results.

As far as the rear end housings, the ones that are dimensionally the same as the 7.5 one you have are the 86-98 V8 Mustangs, the 86?-92? Mark VII, the 87-88 Turbocoupe. There may be a few other Fox based cars with the 8.8, but these 3 have them for sure and the housings are the same size. The axles are longer, but that depends on what you want to use, 4 lug or 5 and disc or drum.

The 94-98 Mustang is a direct bolt in with traction loc, and you can use your 4 lug axles and drums on it if you want.

The Mark VII is a bolt in also with swapping the axles, but most do not have traction loc. A few of the LSC models do, but you have to check. Turn one wheel and if the other one turns the same way, it has traction loc. If they turn opposite ways, then it does not. They came with w 3.08 standard and a 3.27 optional I believe. if you want 5 lugs, then the stock Mark VII is 1.25" wider per side, a bit too wide unless you modify the brackets and use Ranger axles.

The TC is a bolt in with traction loc and 3.55 or 3.73 gears, but to use the 4 lug axles and drums, you have to grind off the anti moan braces.

Good luck and ask if you have more questions.

You can look on www.car-part.com and see if anyone close by has one listed. Otherwise, call and have the yard do a search of their network of salvage yards.

The Fox said:

How rare are they?

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There a dime a dozen around here. I saw four 87-88 Turbo Coupe's in the first junkyard I went too. I got a 3.73 one for 100 bucks with the yard apes pulling it out for me and delierving it to my front door. I havent done the swap yet I'm just too busy trying to prep for paint.

I would go search the junkyards.

TrophyHead said:

There a dime a dozen around here. I saw four 87-88 Turbo Coupe's in the first junkyard I went too. I got a 3.73 one for 100 bucks with the yard apes pulling it out for me and delierving it to my front door. I havent done the swap yet I'm just too busy trying to prep for paint.

I would go search the junkyards.

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i wish they were that easy to find around here

I got my 8.8 out of a trashed GT convertible but the quad shocks were broken. I cleaned it up and painted it but its been stored in plastic waiting for a new diff. I'm getting ready to put it back together since I just got a sweet deal on a detroit true trac for it and some 3.73's. What I was wondering is where can I get the quad shocks for it?

Just get some aftermarket control arms and you will not need the quads. But if you absolutely want them, they are available from some auto parts stores and 5.0 resto I believe.