Leaderboard

Mike, I have an 8.8 installed in my 1968, which is about 2" wider than the 1966. I used a Ford Explorer rear end as well. Some lessons learned: The explorer rear sits under the springs, so the spring perches need to be ground off and new ones installed underneath the axle housing The explorer rear has a lot of attachment points/brackets for the rear sway bar, etc that will just be in the way, so grind those off too The explorer rear has a modern rear universal joint attachment, that uses metric 12 point bolts to attach the rear of the driveshaft. Your new driveshaft will have to mate up to this, so keep that in mind. The emergency brakes on the explorer rear are a problem for early year mustangs to deal with. For the rear disc brake version that I got, they have those small drum brake shoes inside the rear disc that are used for the parking brake. The 1965-1968 "pull handle" parking brakes do not have enough travel, or physical leverage to set the modern parking brake. I retrofitted a Lokar set up that took me a long time to get to work and it still does not work right. Consider using later model Mustang style rear discs on that rear, that have the integral parking brake feature The offset center did not pose a problem for me, there was plenty of room in the rear transmission tunnel You will need new U-bolts and shock mounting plates, as the 8.8 axle tubes are much bigger than the 8" or 9" rears. I used off-road Ford Ranger u-bolts, and I believe my shock plates came from Scott Morris. Drain the rear and inspect it. If all is ok, then don't forget to add the Ford Friction Modifier. This will prevent the gear housing "chatter" that you can get with the modern clutch based traction lock differentials. Good Luck, please post some pics...