I have a 9" that I was told was out of a '71 Grand Torino.. well it needed bearings. So I went to Napa and bought some bearings, came home and checked them and they are not the right size. So I went back to Napa to and they said that was the only bearing listed for that car... sooo... is Napa wrong, are there different bearing sizes for that rear end (ie big/small)? Or do I not have a grand torino rear?

I dont know if this helps but.... Its drums, and without the drums it measures 58 1/2" wide, and its either 30 or 31 spline (roommate cleaned the garage and I cant find the axle shafts at the moment :D )

This might help you with your bearing measurements:
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/ldelozie/template_guide.gif
That way you can determine if you have the big bearing or small bearing. Other than that I don't know what to tell you.

Mine looks like the bottom one, so it makes sense that the bearings were too small...but how can a '71 be 'new style' ?

Mine is the same as the bottom picture and it come from an 81 F100 that everyone told me would be the small bearing, 28 spline. So, i'm not sure what to tell you. If you can take the race out of the housing, since it is a little easier to get off than the bearings, and take it to the parts store. That's what I did and found out that the seal tehy ordered was the wrong one, I found that a slide hammer will make short work of removing the races. I have yet to get the bearings off though.

Since you have the axleshafts out, you might want to make sure it's a 9" and not an 8". I don't know if the 8" was offered in the Torino or not, but people are always mistaking Classic Mustang rearends for 9"s only to find out they bought an 8".

I don't know much about the 8"..does it use the same housing? Cause judging by the housing its definately a 9.

Also, was the 8" 30/31 spline?

One more detail... its 5 on 4.5 which kind of surprised me, the guy I bought it from told me it was 5 on 5 :confused:

MAYBE HE DIDNT KNOW WTF HE WAS TALKN ABOUT :laughing:

I am pretty sure the 8" looked like the 9" only the ring gear was an inch smaller. I think most of the cars were 5x4.5, but I could be wrong there. After all I almost pulled a rear out of a F-100 before I noticed the bolt pattern was a little small. It was 5x4.5 as well so the last time I checked it was still sitting in the pick-n-pull where I left it. It may have been the 8", but I didn't pay much attention to the size of the 3rd member since it looked like a 9" and I didn't know about the 8".

If you have a welder, run a bead around the inside of the race you want to remove and it will fall out.

Originally posted by smurfsdad
If you have a welder, run a bead around the inside of the race you want to remove and it will fall out.

Are you talking about in the groove where the seal would sit? Won't that ruin the surface when you go to install teh new race? I already have both races out of mine, but it may help the next time I have to do it.

I think he means, weld the race itself in order to heat it up and make it expand.


After some checking, it seems to me that most Torinos DID in fact come with the 9". The 8", found under almost every mustang that came off the line back in the 60's looks externally almost identical to the light-duty 9" housing, only it is slightly smaller. Personally, I can ID them pretty well, as I think the 9" has a bit more of a raised section for the ring gear to clear the rear cover, while the 8" is more of a smooth radius with two little divots or dents poking in on the left and right edges of the rear cover.

The 8" came with 28 spline axles that are interchangeable with the 28 spline 9 inch. As far as I know there was not a 30 or 31 spline axle that ever came in the 8".

BTW, almost all Ford passenger cars use the 5 on 4.5" bolt circle. The 5 on 5.5 came on pickups. And judging from that post mentioning a 5 on 4.5 in a pickup, it just might be that hte 5 on 5.5 was a 4x4 thing, but on that I can only guess.