Just the fact that you can pull the carrier out and set it up on a table and not laying on the ground under your vehicle (unless you have a lift, or take the rear end out, etc) is very important to me.

I remember when you could go into the junkyard and get a 9 inch Ford rear axle for under a hundred bucks and you had choices in gear ratios and widths... Man I'm getting old!🤓

My Father bought a 1961 Chevy Belaire with a 283 engine 3:73 gears three on the tree three speed Borg Warner Trans mission with Overdrive.. it had a T-handle on the dash you could pull out for over drive and push in for direct drive .. you could split 2nd and third gear thus you could shift it like a 5 speed .. and with overdrive get very good mpg ..

One thing about the Ford 9-inch that sticks with me to this day, it happened 25-30 years ago or more, it was a NASCAR race on TV that I was watching in real time. Bobbie Allison pulled into the pits, and something in the rear broke for some reason, it was a fluke. There was a yellow flag at the time and everybody pulled into the pits for tires and fuel. Something in Allisons 3rd member broke. The crew chief immediately sent one crew member to their transporter to get another 3rd member, and as he was gone, the rest of the crew jacked up the car, took off the tires, pulled out the axles, took off the 3rd member, then the man that was sent to get another 3rd member got back to the pits, they put in a whole new 3rd member, reassembled the axle, Allison got back on the track, and never lost a lap, because everybody was in for gas and tires. He was at the very rear of the same lap, but it was the same lap. If he'd been running anybody else's axle, they would have had to disassemble the center section with a spreader, and everything else involved with a Chevy 12-bolt or a Dana 44 or 60, and he would have been screwed. But because the Ford 3rd member was pre-assembled, it was easy(ier) to deal with. He didn't win the race, but he was in the money and got some points. All because the Ford 3rd member was easy to deal with. Same thing at the drags, somebody is racing, he decides he doesn't have the correct axle ratio for that day's conditions, he wants to change ratios, if he's got a Chevy 12 bolt or Dana, its a couple hour job to change gears. If he's got a Ford 9-inch, he just pulls the axles, unbolts the 3rd member, puts in another one with a different ratio, puts the axles back in, buttons it up and away he goes. Now, lower class racers can't afford several 3rd members to be on hand, but a higher class racer that wants to change rears, he could easily have a couple of 3rd members in his trailer. as needed.

I really learned a lot from these diff videos. Your communication style is direct and informative. I have driven lots of different diffs at all levels of customization and I am confident I can explain them better now than I ever could before thanks to this differential series. Thank you for making them.

Strange Engineering makes a 9” center with 12 bolt pinion placement for Stock and Super Stock for the reasons you mentioned.

The Rover differential out of a series Land Rover has the pinion at about 3 o'clock. It's good for almost 50hp.

My old man has an early 70’s altered and it came with a 57 Olds style rear end. Those were pretty popular amongst GM guys for a while too.

Another benefit of the 8.75 and 9.0 inch is the drop out center section. The 12 bolt is a PITA to switch gears.

For someone with minor knowledge on rear ends this is a great video

Ford 8.8 is the new junkyard jewel now

Wow! Just when you think you know some stuff, here comes Uncle Tony! The whole thing involving interior stylists: Didn't know that. I was in the business for nearly 40 years, and am considered by a lot of people to be very knowledgeable. Nope. Every single time I watch UTG, I learn something new. Thanks, sir!

Hey Tony, Tim here....yea, my 600 hp, 625 lb ft, destroyed my 12 bolt......TWICE now ('64 Tempest, T-400, 3:73 gear, 3450 with me in it).......my 12 bolt dont like my torque.......WHEN , not if, WHEN it blows again, its gettin a 9" Ford.......but i TOTALLY agree with your power level assesments, as i know.......GREAT vid!!!!....TY sir PEACE to you!!

Knew a guy that found a junkyard 9" rear axle out of a Lincoln Mark V that was factory rear disc. I had no idea Ford made 9" axles with rear disc. What a learning moment.

I use the 8.8 in my little street rod. After market gears are no problem and they're bullet proof. Thanks for the tutorial Professor Tony.

The 9" in a hot rod that is just a driver is overkill. It also is a problem in lightweight cars such as a Model A. The problem being unsprung weight. When your car is too light to hold the rear end on the ground the ride quality suffers. I have used quite a few 8" rears in lighter hot rods with good success. I have also used the 8.8 Ford rear which is basically a 12 bolt Chevy rear. Some parts interchange. The reason that Ford went with the 8.8 is for fuel economy and weight. It's a decently strong rear without the extra drag of the extra low pinion.

Tony, sometimes it's just like being at school....you learn something every day. Well done!

I've heard so many rumors and different stories about how much power the 9 inch takes over the 8.8 but never has anyone actually done any testing, would be a super cool video to make

On my latest Street/race car project I used a strange Dana 60 which has been redesigned by strange and its many pounds lighter than the original and just as strong or stronger. I think it was less than 40 lb heavier than the eight and three quarter which I had already broken twice. And it was cheaper than a custom 9 in

Tony thanks for this video! I had been without a car to work on for some years and back in 2000 I bought a 69 Nova(I was always a Mopar guy) from a local Chevy Super Stock racer. Already done, I did nothing to the car. Built 350, caged, tubbed, but full interior. It was a hot street car. Ran mid - high 11s on MT sportsman tires with 9" convertor, 3" exhuast no suspension aids etc. Just a well done street car. It also had a 9" rear end in it which at the time I thought was odd but I never asked the guy why he put that in a Chevy. Now all these years later I get why he did that and after learning this info from you I'd bet he was running them in his SS drag cars. Learn something new every day!

Keep going with this rear-end series! I'm learning a lot. I know there's more about it you can talk about. Thanks.

A friend of mine with a circle track car[where you are changing ratios back and forth all the time] had the best reason for running the 8 3/4 rear-"nobody borrows my damn gears!!"

One thing you didn't mention is tha for other forms of racing, often the optimal gear ratio varies for different tracks. The removable carrier axles make changing the ratios easy. For offroad use where you can have very high torque at low speed the 9 inch is ver good. I love the removable pinion carrier, it makes setting the depth so much easier!

Another great, informative video from UTG - now I want to go down the rabbit hole on IRS differentials and find out what their plusses and minuses are...

Not only the added pinion support of the 9 inch....which like you said, keeps the gear from deflecting, but because of the lower pinion placement on the ring gear, the 9 inch has 4 teeth in contact at all times....versus the junk ass GM 10/12 bolts which only have two teeth in contact, and no pinion support at all. And the one piece housing does not twist like the junk ass GM rear ends that have tubes pressed into the center case, and a measly little plug weld to hold it all together.....which in a high shock load situation (drag race with manual trans, or a transbrake), has proven to be very weak and prone to breakage. And lets not forget the junk ass GM rears use tapered axles and C-clips to keep the axles in. Dangerous!

A conversation with your Uncle saves you time & money! Thanks Uncle Tony

Interesting fact about right side entry and exit. It started well before the 50's. My 28 Model A has an interior lock on the drivers door and an outside key lock on the passenger door. Back then the idea was to enter and exit from the right side. Also, Ford had the rear support pinion bearing on rear axles from the 30's. The Hallibrand rear in my sprint car had the rear support bearing and it used an old Ford (1940's) ring and pinion.

I’ve always wanted to know how the factories mass produced setting up the ring and pinions. A relatively precise deal to replicate, while churned out by the millions

Great video! Everyone seems to think the 9" is the holy grail, but everything depends on application.

That was the best description of rear differentials , you did a good job at explaining the efficiency of the many choices.

Thank you Uncle Tony, interesting talk with a lot of detail and I learned new aspects of diff design.

Great video! I know what your talking about, but, love the way you explained it. Had forgotten about the 57-59 Ford floorpan issues,, right on,,,K

Always such great content!

Great video Unk....I learned a lot. Back in the day, I was told the posi on the 9 inch wasn't as good as the clutch type 8 3/4 on our mopars. In an automatic hemi most came with the 8 3/4

Awesome video, Unc! One more history of the Ford 8.8 since you mentioned it 👏

Stylist hate engineers. Engineers hate stylist. Mechanics hate both . It's a beautiful world .

Great video! When I was a young man in the 70's racing Mustangs, everyone wanted the 9 inch for street/strip cars. I did multiple swaps of 9 inch rear ends into Mustangs that came with the 8" including a 69 I owned (swapped a top loader 4 speed into it too). I've currently got a 67 390 Mustang that came stock with the 9 inch.

Thanks Tony, I learned a lot on this one!

Very good presentation. Thanks for the info Tony

i ran the 9" some with the BB chevys and ponchos , we did manage to break some of them. seems like they ate spider gears pretty often if you came out hard into second esp with the 4 speed. the old 10 bolt was actually pretty good till you hit 500HP--, the 12 bolt worked pretty good, i had a mopar 8.75" in a heavy f body full of big block th-400 and a huge stall and the thing never broke. we did put a ford 8.8 in a streeter with a 425HP SBC i don't recall it giving any problems--but it was a small block in it. it was an automatic car too.

Thanks Tony, a Very Interesting article, I did not know all that about the Ford 9 inch ! Thanks for the lesson !

Helpful video awesome illustration

Fantastic info, thanks!

Heck I love this differential stuff, nobody ever talks about, the what, the rear end???? Lol... Thanks for the rearend info Tony, that was really great.

Reminds me of the time a kid told me his car had a 9" 12 bolt.

Great info!

Great video Tony.Thanks

I have a 9" as a differential demo for my truck drivetrain class. It's a scaled down copy of the larger Eaton's, Spicer's and Meritor's that are used in heavy trucks. The spigot support and detachable pinion make them easy to rebuild and adjust.

Great info, thanks!

80s and 90s, me and a friend used to hit the pull a part yards. Take all the 9" rears. Had high nodulars and the whole lot. They were $45 each. I sold em for $150. Cheaper than the big yards. Usually had about 10 or more in stock.

I think these differential videos are great. Learned a lot. It would be cool if you talked about the Dana 60's and 12 Bolt Corporate more since you can find thousands of them in the rears of older trucks. They are probably 8 bolts lug pattern, but are still usable for a lot of guys on a budget.

Learned something new, thanks😎

Very interesting and an excellent explanation.

Great information to know, thanks!

Super informative. Thanks.

Good one Tony, I've had several 9" and still have one in a bronco...Rock solid !

Finally this channel is doing the thing it can, explain why. KZfaq is full of big power now why no efficient designs, you are showing what it means to know why vs how which is much more important

I always learn something from watching your videos thanks Tony

It's like the Big 4 Manufacturers were laying the groundwork for the Performance era of cars that were to come in the early to mid 60s already back in the Late 50's. All the engine platforms that became the big hitters for performance had their Genesis in this time, so too driveline components like Diffs and Gearboxes. Most of these Auto Execs had been Defence Staff in WW2, so they knew the virtues of Strategic Planning

Thanks for more great info

Thanks for sharing, all the best to yous and your loved ones

I am amazed at how much this person knows. Next video will be about drag coefficient of various antennas.Tony, respect to you, I am amazed.

Great information! Thank you! I have an 8" in my Cougar and keep getting told to put a 9" in.

Nice explanation Tony. The proper term for the pinion front half is called a pinion cage assy it has two tapered roller bearings in opposing each other. I agree with you on the pinion deflecting an there is a lot of pressure there but the ring gear deflects more than the pinion gear. That's why on trucks we put a thrust bolt on the centerline of the pinion in the housing an it goes flat against the ring gear to reduce the deflection. That would be a cool mod to do to these car diffs.

I read an article many years ago talking about how Fords were breaking axle shafts on hard launches. The engineers kept trying harder and harder materials and the harder the material the easier it broke. They eventually tried a softer iron for the shafts and didn't have any more problems, what they found out was the harder axle shafts weren't flexing under load and the softer more spring like one would and not break. Doing this from memory, please correct any details, thanks!!!!

Thanks. Reminds me of when my old man would explain stuff to me, or when I listened in at the shop him shooting the shit with buddies in such a way that doesn't make you want to jump out a window.

A great video, well done.

I enjoy watching Tony. I'm not much younger than him and I like the fact that he still does things with carbs and points. The younger generation has no idea how much better than the newer stuff. I'm a mechanic and car were better and more durable. Personally I feel they haven't made a good car since around 1985.

Great history lesson Tony 👍

The professor knocks it out of the park. Thank you (Uncle)Tony. for sharing your love of all things automobile, and all of the quirks that go with it, i.e., Ford 9" in. Rear Ends, and so much more. Some people would actually pay money for this knowledge, and Uncle Tony gives its; for the price of admission, just click on it. In my best Kojak (crime drama television series starring Telly Savalas) voice, Who Luv's ya baby! aired on CBS from 1973 to 1978.

Ur knowledge is golden.. thanks for it

Being able to assemble the pinion and bearing separately is, in my opinion, a lot easier to set the bearing preload. I've seen the pinion support bearing in heavier light truck and medium duty differentials. Chevy liked it. Coming from the truck world, I want to point out that there are "high pinion" differentials that put the pinion up about 2 o'clock on the ring gear, which is going to have as much drag as a 4 o'clock placement. "Higher" being more efficient stops at 3 o'clock. Just 'cause someone right now is thinking that a 12 o'clock would be best...

Good to here some one sit down and talk about this. Being a life time Mopar owner/fan, I have played with my fair share of 8-1/4, 8-3/4, 9-1/4 and Dana 60 rears. One nice thing about the ford 9 is there are aftermarket center sections that use the gm 12 bolt style ring and pinion placement. Giving you the advantages of both. When we raced dirt track cars, the drop out center section made it easier to change ratios for the track conditions.

Great video Tony. More differential videos is okay.

This tutorial is priceless!👍

Loved the video. I own two of those Ford 9-inches in running cars.

Great video, I love my 8.8 in my 85 mustang. It works great for my use.

I have been using ford 9" N case rears sense 1971 and haven't had 1 second of problems with them. Excellent rear end.

Another good thing about it is you can have multiple gear ratios in different carriers and depending on what you are doing you can swap it out. Put steep gears in depending on the track to get different results. Same with the Chrysler center you have there on the table.

Some of the strongest 9 inch axle tubes came in the Lincoln Versailles with rear disc brakes. They had to be beefed up for the added stress caused by the disc brakes. The whole thing is beefed up, all the way across, from axle bearing to axle bearing. A lot of Granadas have 9 inch rears that will fit older Torinos and possibly, 71 to 73 Mustangs too. The 1970 Torino rear springs were a perfect match. The racing rules changed to allow different brands of rears, due to available safety axles and bearings.

Off topic here. DDs speed shop has talked about taking a Chevy Nomad on the power tour, not the Uncle Tony charger. Has your plans changed on the project since it may not be taking a long drive in the summer?

A+ content and presentation.

Great info, you really know your hot rods!!!

Hello Tony. Love your Hands-On approach to this stuff. I do have a question for you about a 10 or 12 bolt rear. Is it the amount of bolts on the rear cover plate or is it the amount of bolts holding the ring gear in place? Thanks in advance and keep up the great work. It is funny that some of my friends had Ford 9 in and I would ask them what's the difference and you explained it. Finally got an answer thanks

Great video U.T!

That was a cool breakdown.

Tony, thanks for the history lesson. AAAAA+++++++ I highly recommend your channel to all my geared friends.

Very Interesting, thanks.

Thought I knew everything about this , great information i didnt know this

I have never owned a Ford 9in but always heard about them. Now I know why they are spoken so highly of. Thanks for the education. Great information. Now I know why they are so good and why I will never need one.

Great vidja 🤙🏼

My ‘75 imperial had a Dana 60 disc brake rear end

I have a question about an 8.8 rear dif from a 04 Cobra It only has 25000 miles but I had to replace the crush sleeve and the pinion flange Did not get The reading on the rotational resistance before I took it apart. I have it in between the spec that Ford recommends for the preload 8 to 14 around 10 or 12 Ib-in for me. Everything feels smooth when I rotate it And I used gear marking compound To see the pattern at least. My question is with such low miles should I expect a wining noise from having reset the preload and not knowing what the previous spec was. And what might be a way to go about Getting it to stop. Thanks man also always find your videos super helpful And I end up learning a lot every time keep up the great work👍👍

Thanks for the tech Tony up until now I thought a 9-inch was the optimal choice for everything

HA - PROF. TONY. Your knowledge never fails to impress. Thanks. CHEERS from AUSTRALIA.

I like the dana 60 it held up great in my 1967 GTX 4-speed put the hammer down many times and changed a few clutches. I got fairly quick with that inland shifter

For a change I agree with you. A well thought out and presented clip. The 9" was an evolution of the 8" Ford used from about 48 on. Used on medium performance applications until the 80s. Like so many I was forced to use a 9" in my road race car to get the ratios required for different tracks. Mine was built with equal length axles and I used Aussie 10 bolt 1 tonner axles cut to the length for the car. The Ford used GM axle tubes and brakes etc all interchanged. For a period I used the 10 bolt for one track and the Ford for another until I managed to find the 3 ratios in Ford centres. And you could feel the drag incurred with theFord as well as smell it!! Straight 90 oil?? Not good enough. Perfectly ok in the 10 bolt. My then oil supplier Pennzoil recomeded old vegetable based limslip [diff was a spool] and that saved the gears though stunk!! And changed after every meeting. These days I use sythetic in everything. Runs cooler and does not burn up. However 9" diffs are not really strong or efficient. Pinion is too low. Even with the pinion 'support' those diffs blow up pinion gears. In part because oil will not handle it. I have seen the pinion support break off the carrier, the little bearing explode [twice personally] and the stub break off the pinion. And with aftermarket gears that are softer simply wear out then explode. Genuine Fordn gears are far better but also more brittle. Im used to inspectn everyting very regularly. Caughtcracked gears that way before they broke. 28 spline Ford axles are made from plastic. GM ones [and later 78 series BW axles] are made from steel and seldom ever fail. Bigger is NOT better!! These days them car I dabble with is using 7.8" Borg Warner diffs with a mini spool. With 440hp so far excellent. Another 100 however??. But I have 3 diffs axle to axle that with spools owe me about $800 We never got 8.8s here in Oz. If we had I would be using them.

Awesome video Uncle Tony. One thing I did not know until recently is when you purchase a brand new 9 inch these days more often than not they will be noisy because of how modern gears are machined.

Good differential education Tone..

We used the Chrysler for years, it lets you out the motor up a little higher in the chassis with out so much tilt. It’s plenty strong as long as you don’t get into tire shake