Hey guys,

Finally found someone locally selling axles at a good price. The guy delivered them to me and told me I was getting a D30 @ 3.73 and a D44 @ 3.73 with a Detroit Locker. For $200 total, I was stoked. They came in the dark of night so I didn't get a good look at them. Tonight, I took a closer look and I see the rear axle was setup for a 3 link, no biggy, i cut that off. I washed off the very muddy axle and noticed a set of cut wires going into the pumpkin. Then, I washed off a "Solid" cover over the pumpkin, bonus.

So, I do not think this is a 44...it appears to have an electric locker. Can you guys help me figure out what I have here?

 

you sir, have a ford 8.8

 

Looks like a Ford 8.8...

 

I wonder if you can trick the locker, so that its always locked. I have a Detroit automatic locker, and never had any issues driving on the road.

 

Nope, 8.8 have a removable 3rd member that holds the pinion and diff.

 

Uhh no. 9" has the removable third but 8.8 does not. I have an 8.8 in my XJ.

 

And yes that is an 8.8. Do the wires go to a connection at the top of the diff? I so that is for the abs sensors. A lot of us running 8.8's actually use that as the fill hole for fluid as it pulls out pretty easily.

 

The wires you cut are for the abs tone ring.


And it's hard to tell on my phone , but it looks like it has a minispool in it.

And yes, that's an 8.8

 

Beat me to it

 

thats an 8.8 with a mini spool.

 

An 8.8, cool. Aren't those usually geared at 4.10 out of the back of an exploder? I'm not seeing anything identifying the ratio. Can someone give me a quick lesson how to do the math to count teeth and figure out the actual ratio?

Does that minispool kill my chances at a daily road driver? I'm not very familiar with them. It's certainly not the Detroit he quoted, but if this 8.8 is geared at 4.10 I'll be a happy camper. Already setup for discs to replace my already disc'd 8.25, so that saves me a step!

Appreciate the help as always!

 

Count the ring gear teeth, divide by the pinion teeth.

Or spin the ring gear around till you see 2 numbers next to escorted those should be the ring and pinion teeth numbers. It depending on what brand of gears it could also have the ratio stamped into the side of the ring gear

 

Be sure to check out the gearing in the d30 also to make sure they match the 8.8. The guy obviously didn't know what he had.

With a mini spool your rear end is going to stay locked all the time so you're gonna eat up your tires and it'll be chirping around tight turns if you daily drive it.

 

8.8
The wires are for the Ford speedo, it has nothing to do with ABS.

Regardless, you don't need to worry about it.

 

Curiosity got the best of me...Ring Gear shows 4.10.

So, that's good news...and bad news. It means I do not have a matching set of axle ratios now. I can pull the front drive shaft and run until I find a 4.10 D30.

But, that mini spool has me spooked.