Conversion Possibilities

[gvig]

Pardon, a little comment here.

Actually it would be more proper to say that on the Ford 9 inch and perhaps the 1150 in question, a bearing was not moved to the other side of the pinion, as the two main cone style bearings still are on the outboard side of the pinion and there cage a crush sleeve that determines preload and a third needle roller bearing that provides additional support was added to the inboard end of the pinion. And yes, it is a much more substantial design.

[More Power]

Here's a shot of an AAM1150 rear axle housing with the ring gear and differential carrier removed. You can see that there is no bearing behind the pinion gear. There is on GM's 10-1/2" 14-bolt pinion.

[gvig]

Oops

I should have read MorePowers posting closer before commenting.

Upon rereading, I see where he said, the 10 1/2 inch FF is VIRTUALLY as strong as the AAM 1150 is.

In my years of drag racing, Fords, the only part of the driveline I never was able to destroy or damage was the 9 inch differential. Ford has the third bearing for additional support located at the rear of the pinion. Saw many of my Chevy racing friends destroy their differential gears which were the two bearing design. That always made me think the three bearing design to be stronger. Perhaps metalurgy and design has improved

High torque diesels sure require a different approach than gassers.

[JohnC]

OK, third bearing I can swallow. I was having problems with one in front and one behind. Anyone have a picture of the 10.5 pinion housing?

(Actually, I have a whole axle sitting on the floor in the other room; guess I should pull the cover and look for myself...)

Back in the early '80's I used to race SAAB turbos. The transaxle had an aluminum pinion housing. The bearing closest to the gear was cantelevered away from the case. We were developing enough torque to break the housings with great regularity. Once the pinion moved, the whole transaxle blew apart....

Solution was a custom machined $teel pinion hou$ing.