You know, C-Clips are a whole 'nother debate, to each his own there, theoretically they can break, and if it does the axle will come out, you also COULD theroretically break an axle shaft and it would also come out, whereas a pressed on bearing with the plate bolted to the axle housing would retain said broken axle in the tube.
On the other hand millions of vehicles have been built using c-clips and hundreds of thousands of miles have been put on them, so that has to equate to at least BILLIONS of miles without issue, with that said that is using the vehicle somewhere close to its design parameters. If I were building a rig to do some hard wheeling where it gets a lot of side loading I would install c-clip eliminators or go to an axle that doesn't use them in the first place.
You could definitly put a D-60 or a 14 Bolt under there and be bullet proof, but it would take more work, shorten the tubes, mount spring pad, use different wheels, etc and that wasn't the OP's question, he asked could he use a Ranger 8.8", I expanded that to the Exploder 8.8" as well because they are the same axle and it's one more place to get one from a wrecking yard(didn't mention it but the Montaineer and and Isuzu branded truck are knock-off of their Ford equivalents and those would work too) One thing that IS worth mentioning is that the Rangers used both 8.8's & 7.5's so be sure of what you are getting, if you know the axles it's easy to recognize the difference, if not then just buying a Ranger rear axle might get you either...
Topic: Rear end swap (Read 4405 times)