Drivetrain How to identify year of rear end?

opihinalu

Active Member
Feb 10, 2021
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Florida
Hey all, I’m shopping for an 8.8 for my fox and I found this on Facebook market place. The guy doesn’t know if it’s an 8.8 or what year it comes from. He says 94-04. Can anyone tell me how to identify? Or just identify for me with this pic?

Also, will 94-98 mustang rear ends all bolt up to my fox?
704B82B4-0DFC-4D77-B856-24F07619A31D.jpeg
 
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If your talking about the tag for the gearing, he says it doesn’t have those.

But he sent me a pic and there is a code it says FOZW-AA/B

After some research it looks like a mustang from 1990.
 
It has SN95 disks on it.

The housings changed in 99-04. You don't want one of those, but a 94-98 rear would be fine.

The soft line hookup for the rear brakes is on the driver's side. That is correct. It also looks like they took the drum brake lines and looped them to connect to the Sn95 disk ends, so it does appear that this may be a fox axle that's been converted to run 94-98 SN95 disk brakes.

Can't tell if they are cobra or GT however.
 
How much is he asking and what's wrong with the rear in your car?
A known good rear with gears and disc brakes intact is one thing, but i'm not so sure about buying a used sitting rear from a guy that doesn't even know if it's an 8.8.
Since the tag is gone you can assume it's been opened up too.

They are 5 lug axles, which i guess is good, but they are clearly not fox axles, which is not optimal.

So for me, that would be a rear i'd be buying for the housing only. Everything else, i would replace.
 

If you can get a shot of the rear pan then you will know if its an 8.8 or 7.5. Also, I want to say that in '99 the brake lines are on either side of the rear end where the soft lines connect to the hard lines. I would say that this one is from a 94-98 car based on the location of the soft brake line on the right side of the center section but what I cannot remember is if the V6 cars had this over on the left side like the Fox 4 cylinder cars. Again, rear shot of the pan will tell you if its an 8.8 or not.
 
F0ZW-xx just tells you what it was originally engineered for, a 1990 Mustang. That engineering number prefix (F0 = 1990) gets carried forward every year, and possibly on multiple models, until it get's a major update. It doesn't change every year so it does not tell you it is from a 1990 Mustang.

What you need is the casting date code that is near that engineering number prefix and suffix, or on the other side of the differential housing. (I can't remember where the casrting date code is on a diff housing.) The casting date code looks like a plate with a screw on either end, and has three to four letters and numbers.
 
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