1982 Ford LTD-S 351W Police Car

[gadget73]

you may need the different rear flange. Cop car probably has the big one with both bolt patterns, but civi cars sometimes have the small bolt pattern that doesn't jive with the AL driveshaft. Don't know about the front yoke, but if it goes in there, it ought to work.

[87gtVIC]

Yeah it was a lucky find!

Thanks Dave, That is the stock u-joint for front and back I see based on rock auto's parts. So there is no special adapter U-joint for adapting my yoke to the new driveshaft? I can just use the stock replacements?

I cannot say. All I know is that this was the part number on the boxes of U joints I used for my car. It is a combination 1310 to 1330 universal joint. It was not the same on my car when I removed the old.

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?26257-My-1987-Two-Door-Crown-Victoria-AKA-THE-BROWN-BLOB&p=705696&viewfull=1#post705696

[Brown_Muscle]

Just took out my stock DS. Some interesting things to note. Slipe Yoke on the aluminum one is WAY too big in every way to fit, so that'll need that conversion U-joint. The rear yoke won't mate up to my stock rear, bolt holes are about 3" apart compared to my 2.5". However it will bolt right up to the rear I pulled, so I'm going to wait until i do the rear end swap. The circumference difference is intense! My stock steel drive shaft measures approx 9" and the police aluminum one is 11"! As far as the weight difference, my stock one weighs about 21 pounds, and the aluminum one 16. A 5 pound difference, might be 6 with my smaller slip yoke on it.

How do i know if this is that special "multi matrix" shaft, or an earlier version that is not as...capable at high speeds? Not that it matters all that much, but it would be cool to have the better one.

[Brown_Muscle]

I also notice that the aluminum driveshaft is maybe 1/2" longer than mine. That's the shaft itself, I don't foresee this being a problem

[gadget73]

ok, you have the smaller rear flange then. My car with the tow package has both sets of holes in the rear flange. Only reason I know that is because it now lives with a small pattern civi shaft. The original big pattern tow shaft has a dickered yoke and is grossly off balance. Got tired of it shaking and puking fluid.

Does the 82 have an 8.5 rear or an 8.8 ? That may be part of the difference from big flange vs small flange in the back.

[Brown_Muscle]

BTW, Thanks Dave for the info.

Thain-Funny thing is i was reading some older threads and noticed you mentioned that, good to hear you replaced it.

It's an 8.5, so i like to think of it as a quadruple upgrade with this rear: 8.8, 3.27, wider track width, and trac lok. Plus the discs later...

I'm ordering the one stock U-Joint and Timken bearing rebuild kit tonight. I'll get the conversion joint from a local NAPA

[Brown_Muscle]

Little bit more progress, took all the extras i didn't need off the rear and started to de-rust her. I polished the aluminum diff cover, came out nice.


I also got my Ford Racing trac lok rebuild kit today, and installed that into my carrier, went easier than expected.

[sly]

the only PITA about rebuilding a carrier is the S spring. other than that... it's pretty easy.

[gadget73]

I remember we gave up on the truck spring that came in the kit on mine when it shot across the shop for the third time and vanished. I bet its still in there someplace. The old spring went back in.

[Brown_Muscle]

ha! Didn't have that much trouble with this one, used a vice and vice grips and a brass punch and hammer.

A few updates because I feel like posting! John pressed on new bearings for me on the carrier and pinion gear since he has access to a press. Put in new axle bearings and seals and installed the pinion gear, got it to 27 inch pounds rotational torque, reused the original pinion shim... I'm really hoping that i'll get lucky and not have to mess with the shims. It's the same gears, just new bearings and a different carrier. Going to try the shims I got with the carrier first and see if I get a good pattern. Fingers crossed!

EDIT: So i was reading this:

"If the travel is between .008" and .014" you do not have to mess with adding and subtracting shims because you already have the correct backlash. However, this is highly unlikely unless you have installed gears which are numerically the same as those already installed beforehand because as gears get steeper (numerically higher) the ring gear thickness increases. "

So from what I gather I should actually use that carrier shims that are in the diff housing now, as that came with the 3.27 gears, and not the ones I pulled from the 2.73 trac lok car. I'll compare them tomorrow, but this would make sense.

[86VickyLX]

You always start with the ones from the housing. That will get you the closest. I think you have a little too much preload on pinion bearing. Pretty sure supposed to be 18-22 inch pounds for new bearings. I put old pinion shim on behind new bearing. Made sure of that.

[sly]

preload listed as 18-29 for my 93... Scott put 28 dead with the impact and it's been great.

[Brown_Muscle]

Hey all. It went well! I used the ones from the housing, gear pattern looks good, and is almost identical to the pattern it had before the different carrier and bearings were installed. Very pleased I didn't have to mess with it.

Since I had extra time I attached two wheels John loaned me and began the laborious task of rust removal. I got one section done, cleaned, and put Corroseal on it-apparently a fairly decent rust converter. It worked as it should. Once I've finished the rest, it will get a couple hand painted coats of rustoleum gloss black. I've had good luck with that paint on heavily rusted objects before, and that was with far less prep work than I'm doing now.

[87gtVIC]

looking great.

[gadget73]

RustOleum works well. The rusty metal primer works fairly well too, but it should not be needed if the rust converter does it's job.