In my 66 coupe something in my rear end is locking up. When I turn the wheel left or right the wheels lock up and the car starts to hop. When you are driving straight down the road it does not do it. We jacked it up and when you would spin the wheel sometimes it is free and sometimes it would lock up and it feels like something is binding.

My car has the 6 cyl engine and 4 lug axles. What size is my rear end? How can I find our. To my knowledge it has never been changed.

thank you in advance for all of your help

Jeff

 

Well I can almost promise you it is an 8".

As far as what could be broken, have to tear it apart to find out.

Even most of the 289 cars had the 8" rear if my memory serves me right.
Good luck.

 

Hi Jeff,

Chances are your inline 6 has a 7 1/4 inch rear end. See if the Carrier is removable, sometimes called a 3rd member. None of the 4 lug axles I've seen has a removable carrier. If not removable then it is the 7 1/4 inch axle.

I am looking at a Ford Rear Tag chart, they have three sizes listed:

7 1/4 inch 6 cylinder cars
8 inch 8 cylinder (almost all C code cars)
9 inch 8 cylinder (all A and K code cars)

There are some variations, after 40 years a lot of axles have been changed. If you would crawl under the car and check the differential there should be a sheet metal tag attached to one of the differential bolts. It will have a code listed on it, you will probably have to really clean it to read it. Should read something like:

WCY-E

Which is a 65 to 70 model year, 3.20:1 Axle Ratio, 7 1/4 inch ring gear, Integral carrier and 24 spline axles.


Hope this helps, MikeR

 

Pull the wheel off, pull the brake backing plate off and check the axel bearings. My 70 just siezed up a drivers side bearing and it was making the same noise that you describe.

The entire rebuild for the complete 9" rear end cost me 900 bucks, but the bearing replacement was around $200.00 parts and labor.

Good luck.

 

A damaged bearing will look something like this....

 

At a local repair shop i have found a rear end that will fit my car. It came out of a donor car and he wants $200 for it. i figure it is a fair price considering the ring and pinion gear is $300+ alone. Hope it works out.

 

Careful that you don't inherit someone else's mistake. Will the guy give you a warrantee on the used rear end? If not, might be better to repair your own for a little more money--at least that way you know what you have.

--P

 

Just a guess, but it sounds like the spider gears are torn up.