Rear Drive Axle and Differential - Ford 8.8-Inch Ring Gear

Rear Drive Axle and Differential
The rear drive axle and differential consist of the following:
^ Cast aluminum differential housing and cover
^ Differential housing cover that uses silicone sealant as a gasket
^ Hypoid-design gearset that consists of an 8.8-inch differential ring gear and a drive pinion gear
^ Two opposed pinion bearings that support the drive pinion gear in the differential housing
^ Differential drive pinion collapsible spacer, located on the drive pinion gear shaft, that maintains pinion bearing preload
^ Pinion nut that adjusts the preload
^ Differential bearing shims between the differential bearing cups and the differential housing which adjust the differential ring gear backlash and the differential bearing preload
^ Differential case with 2 openings to allow for assembly of the internal components and lubricant flow. Removable differential bearing caps retain the differential assembly in the differential housing
^ Two opposed differential bearings that support the differential assembly in the differential housing
^ Inside the differential assembly, the differential pinion shaft supports 2 differential pinion gears. The pinion gears engage the differential side gears to which the halfshafts are splined
^ The differential pinion shaft lock bolt retains the differential pinion shaft in the differential assembly
^ An embossed metal tag, bolted to the differential housing cover, contains rear axle identification.

The rear axle assembly receives rotational input from the driveshaft through a piloted pinion flange. The drive pinion drives the ring which is bolted to the differential case. The design of the differential allows the side gears in the case to rotate at different speeds. The axle halfshafts are splined to the side gears permitting the vehicle to manipulate corners without sliding the inside tire.

The axle identification tag identifies a particular axle design and specific ratio. In addition, the plant code will not change as long as that particular axle assembly never undergoes an external design change. If, however, an internal design change takes place during the production life of the axle and that internal change affects parts interchangeability, a dash and numerical suffix is added to the plant code. This means that as an assembly, both axles are interchangeable; however, internally they are different. Therefore, each requires different internal parts at the time of repair.