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Rear Diff & Brakes

After I got the rotors back from the machine shop then I could final assemble the rear diff and the rear disc brake conversion kit. After struggling to work on the rear diff without some type of cradle to hold it, I took some of my scrap lumber and the wheels from an old moving pallet and made a simple cradle for the rearend.

With it in the cradle then I took some time to thoroughly clean the rear housing prior to installing the mechanism. The first thing in was the third member. I opted to use the newer type gasket that does not require any sealant. We'll see how that does longterm. Then I dropped in the third member and torqued down the t-bolt nuts.

Next were the rear axles. I had a hard time trying to get these installed. I got the RH side in and then the LH side would not go in completely. I kept working the LH side trying to get what I thought were misaligned splines to engage. So after scratching my head for a bit it was time to do some internet browsing to see what I was doing wrong. After about 20 mins on the web then I hit upon the issue. On Ford 9” diffs the rear chunk is not centered on the housing so the axles are unequal length....I knew that part. This particular housing has the chunk less offset than the typical stock ones but it it is still offset. The part that threw me was that I was putting the short axle on the side of the housing that “appeared” to be shorter and the long axle on the opposite end, the installation was actually opposite of this due to the internal engagement of the axles in the third member. I then swapped them and viola, easy fix. Rookie mistake but I learned something (until I forget it next week).

With the axles installed then it was on to the rear disc brakes. The kit from Speedway Motors used the widely available GM metric calipers with integral parking brake. These went together fairly easily except for the wire anti-rattle/pad retaining clips.... these were a pain.

With the rear diff pretty much assembled then it was time to slide it back under the truck and see how things fit. After I slid it in place then it was pretty obvious that I was going to have a major clash of the parking brake arm/mechanism with the inner wheel well that I had formed. Oh, well. The metal work will never end. It was late so I just left it like it sat. I will just cut out the area to clear and then fix the metal later. My goal is to check rear tire and wheel fitment. That will be the next task.