The Ford 9-inch is an automobile axle manufactured by

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

. It is known as one of the most popular axles in automotive history. It was introduced in 1957 model year cars and ended production in 1986, having been phased out in favor of the Ford 8.8 inch axle. However, aftermarket companies still produce the 9-inch design. It is a semi-floating drop-out axle and had a GAWR up to . One of the features which distinguishes this axle from other high-performance or heavy-duty domestic

solid axle Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and plasma). The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount of kinetic energy. A solid is characterized by structura ...

s is that unlike other axle designs, access to the differential gears is not through the rear center cover; rather, in the Ford 9 inch, the rear cover is welded to the axle housing, and access to internals is obtained by removing the center cover on the

pinion A pinion is a round gear—usually the smaller of two meshed gears—used in several applications, including drivetrain and rack and pinion systems. Applications Drivetrain Drivetrains usually feature a gear known as the pinion, which may ...

(front) side of the axle through which the

driveshaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...

yoke connects, with the differential assembly coming out of the axle as a unit attached to the cover.ford-9-inch-diagram.jpg
/ref> Although this requires disconnecting the driveshaft to access the internal gearset, it offers the advantage of being able to disassemble and reassemble the differential gears and adjust clearances conveniently on the benchtop, rather than with the restricted access of working within the axle housing under the car.

General specifications

* Ring gear measures * Factory nodular center sections are usually marked with an "N". * Factory center section's biggest flaw is the pinion bearing pilot support, which are prone to cracking due to the nature of the pinion gear/crown gear relationship. * Factory center sections carry two (2) different bearing dimensions (). * Factory axle shaft and differential spline count is 28 and 31, although aftermarket axles with 35 and 40 spline count are readily available from reputable manufacturers. * Wide variety of axle bearing flanges were fabricated. * Although most factory assemblies carried drum brakes, there were units which were fitted with disc brakes (Thunderbird, etc.). * Factory axle (wheel) bearings are retained via a press-on collar, and not an internal c-clip inside the differential. * Axles are straight, and not tapered (which can be cut and resplined, if so needed).

Common applicationsIncomplete list. Common applications only.

*1957-1986 Ford F-100 & F-150 *1958-1960 Edsel (All series including Wagons) *1976-1980 Ford Granada *1976-1979 Lincoln Versallies *1957-1970 Ford Fairlane *1957-1971 Ford Thunderbird *1964 1/2-1973 Ford Mustang *1966-1983 Ford Bronco *1967-1984

Ford Falcon (Australia) The Ford Falcon is a full-size car, full-sized car that was manufactured by Ford Australia from 1960 to 2016. From the XA series of 1972 onward, each Falcon and range of derivates have been designed, developed, and built in Australia, following ...

*1968-1976 Ford Torino *1969-1970 1/2

Ford Falcon (North America) The Ford Falcon is a model line of cars that was produced by Ford from the 1960 to 1970 model years. The first compact car marketed by the American Big Three automobile manufacturers (though antedated by the Rambler American), the Falcon was th ...

*1957-1959 Ranchero and Wagon *1967-1973 Ranchero

Notes

References

*{{citation, url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5pH9BOxPEb0C&pg=PA117&, title=How to Tune and Modify Your Ford 5.0 Liter Mustang, 1979-95, first=Steve , last=Turner, work=books.google.co.uk , year=1999, ISBN=978-0-7603-0568-3, quote=Ford's 9-inch rear end is so durable it's a wonder Ford stopped making it, accessdate=22 August 2011 Automotive engineering Automobile axles

General specifications

Common applicationsIncomplete list. Common applications only.

See also

Notes

References