Complete Rear End Help....Currie

[hsach]

Been spending too much time on my '78 bronco lately, so I need to get back into building the '67. The stock rear end is a small bearing 9 and as it sits, would need a complete rebuild. The plan is for a 351W and a 4r70w. I have a '98 4r70w that I will have rebuilt with the correct parts to mate to the D20. The 351 will be fairly healthy, it will be my wife's bronco and she loves loud and powerful.....whoohooo! Trying to decide between a local engine builder or something like Blueprint, but for the rear end I am going to buy one complete. I have a 2 1/2" lift kit from Wildhorses4x4, and I also have an empty D44 housing I bought from them years ago. Since I have the D44 housing, I plan to have a local shop build the front for me, I haven't checked on any pricing yet but I assume it has to be cheaper than the price for a Currie D44. Their D44 seems to be built to a much higher standard than I will ever need, mine will be open diff and this bronco won't be off-roading much, we use the sidebyside mainly for that now.

I know it will take a while to order a complete rear from Currie, not sure of the backlog right now, but I wanted to ask the collective here if am going down the right path for a complete rear end from Currie. Are there any issues with their rear ends that I need to be aware of that will be different than a stock 9"? Here is what I plan to order from them:

Currie Centurion High-Strenght 9-inch Nocthback Housing
Nodular Iron Gear Case with Daytona Pinion Support
1310 Nodular Iron Pinion Yoke
31 spline axle
5 on 5.5 in. Wheel bolts with 1/2 in. Studs
Eaton Truetrac Posi
4.56 gear ratio
11 inch Drum Brakes

I decided to stick with the 1310 Yoke. I didn't see the need for the 1330 since it won't see any hard wheeling. The 4.56 gears seemed to work best with the 4r70w for around town and highway driveability. I know it would be cheaper to make the small bearing rear work, but I would rather change it all out for new, and to do it correctly the first time, lol. Any advice or criticism would be great.

 

[Yeller]

I think you have a solid plan, but no need to lock yourself into Currie, can't go wrong with them, but there are lots of other companies. Wild Horses has all of the pieces as well as Quick Performance, Tom's Offroad and several others, they all sell top quality parts and probably have them on the shelf.

 

[hsach]

Thanks for the reply Yeller. The reason I picked Currie was because they were the only ones I could get a complete rear delivered. I looked at Wildhorses and Quick Performance, but it seemed I would have to piece it together instead of getting a drop in ready unit. Doing some research on this forum also brought up the issue about the Wildhorses housing not having the preferred Torino housing ends. I am not sure if that is a big issue or not, I apparently did enough research on rear-ends to confuse myself, lol.

I will take a look at Tom's Offroad also. If there are other places that can sell a complete bronco rear, let me know, thanks.

 

[Apogee]

What is your plan with respect to rear brakes? While you could go with the big-bearing Torino (new-style) ends, that was a fairly limited run on the EB and the drum brakes are smaller than if you were to go with the big-bearing old-style ends. My '77 EB has the same housing ends and drum brakes as my '77 F150, so if the plan is to stick with drum brakes, then I would stick with the old-style ends (2.375" x 3.500") since those were used on so many more applications and provide larger shoes/drums.

If the plan is to go aftermarket on the brakes, then the Torino ends are the best supported option today, so that would be a good option as well. Same story if the plan is to run the Explorer disc brakes, since those will bolt up to the Torino ends and 2.50" axle offsets.

 

[hsach]

Thanks for the explanation on the brakes Apogee. That is where it got a little confusing for me. I saw that the Torino style seemed to be preferred, I just didn't know why. As far as my plan for rear brakes goes, I want drum brakes for the simplicity, and also my wife uses her parking brake a lot. With my small bearing rear, I knew I could only get the 10x2 1/2" drums and with the 351W I wanted as much stopping power as drums could offer and that meant going with the larger 11" ones. I didn't realize there were different 11" drum sizes for the bronco. I don't plan on any brake upgrades after the drums, I like the stock drums on my '78 bronco and see no reason to upgrade to disc in the back on either bronco. I thought about the Explorer brakes, but it sounds like the parking brake isn't very good. The fronts will be disc.

I will go back and look at wildhorses4x4 and the others to see if I can get a complete rear with the big bearing old style, if that is the route that will give me the largest rear drums. I will also check to see if my '78 bronco will share brake parts, it would be nice to have the same rear drums/shoes on my '67 and '78. One less thing to remember.

 

[Yeller]

Your welcome

I have Torino ends and big bronco backing plates with 11” drums, was really simple. IMO Explorer rear disc are fine with the internal parking brake, the designs with the caliper parking brake not so much.

You are also correct about piecing it together, at least as far as I know. They do have all of the parts, Just depends on how you feel about a couple of hours assembling everything.

 

[Broncobowsher]

Doesn't have to just be Currie. I know this shop will do lugnut to lugnut if that is what you want.

Ford Bronco | Western Differential & Driveline

Early Bronco Ford 9" Front & Rear Differential1966-77 Bronco 31 Spline Ford 9" Front Differential Housing

www.westerndiff.com

And just parts if that is what you want as well.

 

[hsach]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I have a much better understanding now of the different housing ends and what that means for brake packages. I guess I only need to worry about having Torino ends if I want to switch to Explorer brakes at some point, or some other aftermarket brakes. Since I will be going with drums and most likely not upgrading to discs, either end type will get me big drums. Also thanks for suggesting the other vendors, I looked at them but didn't see bronco specific full packages so I didn't look further. I will contact them to see what a complete rear with drums will cost. If there are any other places besides Quick Performance, Currie, and Western Diff, that offer complete rears, let me know and I will check them out.