1G And so it begins, 1G AWD conversion.

[bastarddsm]

DSM rear diff's are junk. No reason to force shit to work that shouldn't. Either use the whole AWD dsm rear suspension, or ladder bar an 8.8. I was contemplating running a leafspring 8.8 off the stock fwd rear suspension mounts. May still do it on my next one.

 

[92tsifwd]

Hey 92tsifwd.. how are you going to use an 8.8 out of a mustang?? you need alot more room for exhaust and the rearend as the whole thing moves.. also what about gear ratio? but i see you have a MT so they do make 3.54 for 8.8 i believe.. also what about just wedling axle tubes to the stock rear diff and getting some custom Moser axles and using disks off an 8.8 or something.. just use the ford 9" style withe axle bearing on the axle to hold them in

3.55 ratio is so close to 3.54.5 that don't think it cause any issues. yep a 4 link setup out of a mustang would work great. Slowboy has a 9" in there drag car that I believe is rear tube chassis. It would not be hard at all to fab some mounts for the mustang style rear end and the parts availability for the 8.8 is worth it when it comes to the aftermarket. I seen a 8.8 equipped awd talon on youtube a while back. You might be able to get some ideas from that.

 

[bastarddsm]

3.55 ratio is so close to 3.54.5 that don't think it cause any issues. yep a 4 link setup out of a mustang would work great. Slowboy has a 9" in there drag car that I believe is rear tube chassis. It would not be hard at all to fab some mounts for the mustang style rear end and the parts availability for the 8.8 is worth it when it comes to the aftermarket. I seen a 8.8 equipped awd talon on youtube a while back. You might be able to get some ideas from that.

ick.....an 8.8" and a 9" 3.55, is really a 3.545. Don't believe there are ANY teeth combinations that can get you exactly 3.55.

Also, Slowboys Black Betty was a full tube chassis car.

Finally, the 8.8 out of an exploder is equipped with a 3.545, 31spline axles, lsd, disc breaks, and its the same track width as a DSM.

 

[turboglenn]

ick.....an 8.8" and a 9" 3.55, is really a 3.545. Don't believe there are ANY teeth combinations that can get you exactly 3.55.

Also, Slowboys Black Betty was a full tube chassis car.

Finally, the 8.8 out of an exploder is equipped with a 3.545, 31spline axles, lsd, disc breaks, and its the same track width as a DSM.

That's somedamn good info bud!!! thanks for posting that up, you happen to know what year exploder they come out of? MY parents have a nice one, wonder if they'd notice no rear axle in it?????

 

[bastarddsm]

I wanna say mid ninties. I got the info from the solid axle thread by the kentucky boys, or in Talondave's 9 second quest.

 

[92tsifwd]

ick.....an 8.8" and a 9" 3.55, is really a 3.545. Don't believe there are ANY teeth combinations that can get you exactly 3.55.

Also, Slowboys Black Betty was a full tube chassis car.

Finally, the 8.8 out of an exploder is equipped with a 3.545, 31spline axles, lsd, disc breaks, and its the same track width as a DSM.

Only 95+ explorers have disc brakes. 91-94 have 9" or 10" drums. Also the ranger and fox 8.8" axles are the same width which is close to a 1g dsm. However the explorer axle is 1 3/4" wider on each side. You are only half right about the explorer axle. They are all 31 spline but, it was an option to get lsd, just like the ratios very 3.55, 3.73, 4.10. I know this because I am curently swaping one into a ranger that has a 7.5. Ford states an explorer axle has 30% more streanth than a ranger 28 spline 8.8.

 

[92tsifwd]

Hey I was just wondering how you came out bastarddsm, on this? I had to delay my finishing my car for a while. I ended up converting mine to a auto awd setup and still have to bolt in the awd crossmember and struts. Do you know if the awd struts bolt right in place?

 

[o0GuitarKid0o]

this is awesome ! its not impossible to convert to awd made my day, ill have to consider this in the future < dsm ALL THE WAY

 

[bastarddsm]

This car has been AWD since 08 . It went 12.9 in 09, 11.8 in '10, 11.75 in '11, 11.1 in '12, 10.85 in '13, and 10.85 this year.

It's far from an easy swap. I only did it cause my FWD was pretty nice, and an AWD as clean as mine was really expensive back then.

 

[GRNDSM]

Now that this "been done", would you recommend this project because someone has a "really nice" FWD?

 

[bastarddsm]

That's a tough call. AWD shells are super cheap now days, but usually they are junk. There are some super clean ones out there, but they bring some decent coin. I guess it depends a lot on the situation.

I porbably would have been ahead to just buy a nice AWD, but In my case I had a lot more time than money, had painted mine a year or two before, and I had owned it for a quite a while, and I'm kinda sentimental. I know if I would have sold it to buy a AWD it wouldn't have been worth much, and some punk kid would have trashed it in no time. Plus the AWD I bought to do the conversion was trashed, so rather than send one to the yard, I made another AWD.

My car is very nice compared to a lot of cars out there, but there are a lot of things I did when I was younger that aren't as nice as I would like, plus it's getting beat up an rusty. I drive it a lot and beat it like a 2 dollar whore .
So I want a nice low mile one (~50k or less) to build when I'm done with school and somewhat settled. I'm not sure what I'm gonna buy. It would be a shame to cut up a nice original awd, so i'll probably find a nice fwd n/t. I kinda think that it'll get made rwd though. The awd transmission options for these cars kinda sucks.

 

[Merlinchrist]

If i was to do anything like this i would make a rear engine rear drive one.

Pretty sure you inspired gingiums build on YouTube