Christian Hazel
Brand Manager, Four Wheeler
Yes, it is possible to build the ultimate custom axle in the comfort of your own garage and without a welder. All you need is a few measurements and about 2-large in disposable income.
The Ford 9-inch axle comes pretty close to being the world's most perfect axle. The only thing keeping us from dubbing it so is the extremely low pinion location. The 9-inch has a very lightweight housing and near-infinite axle ratios and traction device options, and can be built to easily handle over 1,000 hp. Those are pretty good arguments for swapping one into any vehicle.
What We NeededWhile it should be relatively easy to find a number of different-width housings in the junkyard, in our case we needed an offset pinion location for a Dana 18 transfer case, so we couldn't just bolt in a junkyard housing. Also, we'd need the axle to be able to handle over 500 lb-ft of torque and live with 37- or 38-inch tires. In addition, we insisted on rear disc brakes, so junkyard parts simply weren't an option.
What We GotWe kept coming back to the Currie Enterprises catalog and drooling over its 9-inch rear housing. At a mere $650 for a brand-new heavy-duty housing with axleshafts (11/42-inch shafts up the price a little more), it was a bargain we just couldn't pass up. Currie offers the housings in extra-heavy-duty, gusseted, skidplated, and even high-clearance versions. We decided on the heavy-duty housing with 35-spline shafts. Currie simply took our measurements over the phone and delivered the housing right to our office. No fuss, no muss.
For the third member we were originally going to find a good junkyard centersection and try our hand at regearing it. However, cooler heads prevailed and we wound up giving Dave Rittenhouse at Drivetrain Direct a call. Rittenhouse suggested a Currie 9-Plus Street Case with a 3.062-inch pinion bearing for our application because it's stronger than a standard Nodular case and less expensive than full-on competition stuff. We shouldn't ever bust it. Rittenhouse also suggested using Drivetrain's excellent Superior Axle and Gear ring-and-pinion gearset. We insisted on a spool for tractorlike traction.
For brakes we once again had thoughts of using junkyard drums off any '80s Ford truck and swapping to TSM discs later. However, we'd gone this far and couldn't rationalize skimping at this point. We gave Cliff Jones at TSM a call, who knew what part numbers we needed for our application off the top of his head. We've used TSM before and have faith in the company and its products. The company had recently changed its kits for the Ford 9-inch and we had some fitment problems. TSM listened to our concerns and made changes to parts of the new kit and to its instructions. True to form, the redesigned Ford 9-inch kit bolted right up.
For less than $2,300 we wound up with an absolutely killer rear axle that is as bombproof as they come. We could have built it in stages as funds allowed (the gearing would have been an issue), and best of all, it didn't require a welder to finish.
