When I first posted the photos of the dirty old junkyard Ford 9" axle I bet you were wondering what I was going to do with it. Well after some down time, a lot of grinding, welding and fabrication I am finally making some progress on the Budget 9".
Before we go any further I should probably explain why I have named it the Budge 9". It is simple really; I wanted to build a 9" axle for my 4x4 Pre-Runner project (aka Trailrunner) and didn't want to spend a whole lot of money. This took me first to a Pick-a-Part down by the docks where with the help of a good friend and a trusty cordless sawzall we harvested this jewel and had it out the door for under $100. (Just make sure you get them from a car, they are cheaper than the truck version, at least in the eyes of the junk yards out here) And with all of the fab work being done by myself I should be able to keep this Budget 9" on track.
Ok, now for the new updates. When we left off last I had gotten the axle home and cleaned most of the 30 years of grease and grime off of it. Since then I have cut and ground off all of the stock spring and link bar mounts and cleaned the housing up in anticipation of adding the back brace and new link mounts.
In keeping with the budget theme, instead of buying new axle shafts with either 31 or 35 splines I opted to keep the stock 28 spline shafts since they are already the correct bolt pattern and width and headed back to the junk yard to pull a spare set of shafts from another Ranchero. This set me back $50 bucks instead of the $500 new shafts would have cost, and even then I wouldn't have had spares.
Stay tuned for the next installment of the Budget 9"!