9 inch axle retainer plates differences

[Redbark]

I'm rebuilding my '68 small bearing 9" rear diff. At disassembly I discovered that there are two styles of axle retainer plate in my diff. One is relatively flat, with a subtle raised lip at the axle through hole. The other retainer plate has a pronounced raised lip at the axle through hole, and was located on the long axle, passenger side.

Are the plates meant to be different for some reason? Will there be an issue with re-assembling the rear end with the differing plates?

 

[Apogee]

I'm certainly not an expert at all things 9", however I did tear apart a Ford 8" once, and it used retainers with the taller "collars" on both axles, so maybe it's an 8" thing (they used the same Ø72mm bearings as the small-bearing 9"), or maybe Ford just sourced them from different suppliers or revised the part at some point during production.

Other than possibly keeping foreign contaminants further away from the grease seals on the bearings, I'm not sure what purpose that collar would serve, if any.

 

[DirtDonk]

Never seen the taller one myself. Both of my original '71 retainers were of the shallower style (big bearing if that makes any difference?).

Up until now, the only differences I've personally seen other than bearing size and bolt pattern of course, were the ones specifically for the Set-20 bearings. Those had a larger cone area so as not to overly preload the bearings, but they too did not have an extended center collar.

Interesting stuff.

Paul

 

[Redbark]

Never seen the taller one myself. Both of my original '71 retainers were of the shallower style (big bearing if that makes any difference?).

Up until now, the only differences I've personally seen other than bearing size and bolt pattern of course, were the ones specifically for the Set-20 bearings. Those had a larger cone area so as not to overly preload the bearings, but they too did not have an extended center collar.

Interesting stuff.

Paul

Sounds like they should be matching. Would you suggest grinding the large flange down or just leave as is?

 

[tirewater]

My '76 uses the taller collars with the breather relief indentation in them. In your picture, the one on the right.

 

[DirtDonk]

I'd wait for others to chime in on changing it. But since tirewater's '76 uses the taller one, chances are it's just fine to leave it as is and figure it was either a running change or at some point in the past someone replaced a bearing or an axle and that was available.

If it works I generally see no reason to change something, other than matching aesthetics. In other words, when it makes us feel better to be "balanced" so to speak!
Personally, as long as it's not interfering with the axle flange (and it would not be or you'd have found out long before this) I'd just leave it.

Paul

 

[Apogee]

My '76 uses the taller collars with the breather relief indentation in them. In your picture, the one on the right.

Does your '76 have a small-bearing rear end? I thought all of the '76 EB's came with the higher GVWR big-bearing rear ends, but maybe I made that up. It'd be interesting if there's a high-collar version of the retainer plate for the big-bearing pattern...I've only ever seen one for the small-bearing housings.