as far as the brake thing goes, i feel you are better off going with the crown vic disc brake swap... everyone jumped on the versalles bandwagon, and therefore, supply is thin. the crown vic's are still a dime a dozen. you can pick up any number of rear ends that will bolt in, swap the brakes out, and still have money left over for a set of gears. being from fla, do you know of any 57 - 59 full size fords? best rear there is for a 65-66 mustang...just get the spring mounting plates, as the axle tubes are larger diameter.
The Exploder rear is easier said than done, the pinion is offset 4" to the passenger side.
For those not in the Jeep world, xj is the Cherokee. Which, for what its worth, got renamed the Liberty because of the native american Cherokee indians. However, in the rest of the world its still known as the cherokee. I learned this working for Chrysler a while back.it's real popular with the XJ crowd
"...But when it comes to rear disks, personally, I stay as far away from the Versailles rear as possible because:
1. It has that weird double cardan yoke on it
2. The "towing/performance" gear was 2.79, standard was 2.43.
3. Parts, particularly calipers, are expensive and hard to find.
So when you figure the cost of rebuilding the existing brakes, putting a reasonable gear in it, maybe even posi too, it becomes one expensive rear end. If you dont make enough power to really need a 9", you can get a rear from any thing related to the Versailles, like the Granada/Mercury equilvalent, the Maverick/Comet, Falcon, etc etc etc. Early Fairlanes I think had the right width rear ends too, but maybe the perches have to be moved, Im not sure. Whatever diff you go with, I would get the Crown Vic disks if its a small bearing, Explorer if its a big bearing. I wouldnt rule out having a custom rear end made either. You can have a housing narrowed pretty cheap <$200, new axles are only around $250, center sections can vary depending whats in it, brakes are about $50 at the local u-pick and if you get lucky will still be useable, but all in all you shouldnt have more than about $750 into it if you do it right, and get a little lucky, and youll have a far better rear end than a stock Versailles.
I never said the Versailles was a BAD rear end, but given what most people want, its gets pretty expensive pretty fast to make it performance oriented. Im shocked you found those calipers that cheap, I called my local napa and they quoted me more than double that price, so I weasled out of the one I won on eBay. Are you sure about the ratios? You would probably know better than I would, but Ive only ever heard of the 2.79 and 2.43 coming in the Versailles.
Well I guess a decision was made. Was wandering the pick/pull yard today. And just looking for some things for the jeep, and looking to see what 9" rears I could find. See if there was anything with a trac-loc or not.
Well found an aerostar (not sure) aluminum driveshaft already pulled from a car, so for 15.00 couldn't pass that up. Mentioned to the checkout guy I was looking for a trac-loc center for a 9", and he says "Oh there's a full axle out front there for 200.00. Came out of a mustang has posi in it.
So tape measure in hand and jumped over there, and did some quick measurements, and while looking at it, it doesn't appear to be a mustang rear, but probably originally an older 9" someone put into a mustang. Either way, it's the right length, and appears to be 31 spline large bearing, and quick estimate is gears are 2.75 or so, with posi
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