Ford 8.8 28 or 31 spline ?

Ok so I picked up a trash bin a few weeks back to scrape the drive train from and throw away the rest of it and the jeep currently has a ford 8.8 but heres the kick its drums:wierd: I know its got 3.73's and an LSD but I cant seem to find out whether or not its a 28(ranger) or 31 spline (explorer) ? any sure fire way ya'll know of to figure this out without having to pull the shafts and count? lol thanks guys

... pull a shaft and count... it isn't very hard :spin1:

That stock diff cover should be coming off anyways, they are basically tinfoil, buy a ruffstuff cover and a lubelocker gasket, rip the old cover off, pull a shaft (use a good quality 5/16 fully boxed wrench on the cross shaft pin or you will round it off) and count.

Also, I am nearly certain that all 8.8 shafts from explorers are 31 spline. Isn't it only the pickups that had 28 splines in some cases? Wish I could figure out where all this misinformation is coming from and stop it, it just confuses everyone.

I picked a random year (1993, drums) and compared shafts in the RockAuto catalog, the Explorer only has 31 spline available, the F150 is the same, and the Ranger lists only 28 spline.

All exploder 8.8's got 31 spline axles, drums or not.

if it's still got a BOM tag on it you can probably just look at the tag, run the numbers at the ranger station site and find out what gears/ what it came out of. Or just pull the cover and look, you're going to be in there anyway checking it over before you bot it to yours right ?

yea ill tear into it I guess lol my lazy ass has just been web wheelin to much seein as I have no garage and snow in my yard not exactly a motivator to get me out there lol
but I planned on new gear oil at least so I will look thanks guys !
Also I know for sure that exploders had 31 splines and rangers are 28 I just wanted to make sure the cheap ass I bought this dumpster from wasnt half ass-ing this axle choice to lol ,but yall really should have seen what he did to the e brake cables on this thing hahaha there all wrapped and intwined around the tubes and what not and to top it off the aftermarket diff cover he put on is leaking lol

87manche said:

you're going to be in there anyway checking it over before you bot it to yours right ?

Click to expand...

Right......hehe

FWIW, my 8.8 originally had drums on it (disc now) and came out of a SportTrac truck. It is 31 spline.

if u look at a ranger 8.8 its clearly got smaller tubes. i think ranger axle tubes are 2.75" vs the exploder ones that are 3.25". basically if you dont have 3.25" tubes then its not an exploder 8.8