i need help on changeing my wheel bearings on my 88 thunderbird with a 5.0. i looked at the plate that tells you your axle size it said 8 so i dont know if it is a 7.5 or a 8.8? and what do i need to replace the bearings?
hmm, my 87 5.0 has a 7.5 open dif. i havnt changed the rear bearsing (dont need to yet) but if you were talkin about front wheel bearings i could help. sorry :x but yeh im pretty sure you got the 7.5, but i could be wrong, you might have gotten a car with a axel swap, or they put the 8.8 in the 5.0 in 88 oposed to 87 5.0s
its the rear axle and on the plate in the door it said it had a 8in axle
do they both have a open diff
also do the axles have any play in and out of the houseing? mine have about 1/16 to 1/8 in and out
8.8s were traction lock (posi)
7.5s were either traction lock or open which can be determined by the axle code on the door tag.
You need a really high quality slide hammer puller. I cannot emphasize enough on using a quality tool. I have had a bearing explode on me with all the bearings on the ground and the out ring still seized in the axle. And what a good ole time you will have trying to get that out. I know I did. :rolleyes:
what code is what?
It's all here (http://"http://www.coolcats.net/tech/general/axleinfo.html")
but in short, here, I just copied the table.
CODE Rear Axle Ratio
Conventional Locking
8 M 2.73
Y Z 3.08
F R 3.45
5 E 3.27
6 W 3.73
All the info is here (http://"http://www.coolcats.net/tech/general/axleinfo.html")
Basically it's the following...
Conventional ... Locking...Ratio
8 .....................M .......... 2.73
Y .....................Z ............3.08
F .....................R ........... 3.45
5 .....................E ........... 3.27
6 .....................W .......... 3.73
*EDIT- woops, I didn't put two and two together. On your door tag you have an 8, so that means you should have a 7.5in open rear with 2.73 gears.
Wow, talk about some bad luck with cars! If that happened to me, I think I would just hang my head and start sobbing.
I had that happen to me, too, in my '88 Cougar. I also had to cut the diff pin out with a torch after somebody (the service manager's son at the dealership I worked at and bought the car from) spun the wheels so bad when it was stuck in mud that the spider gears welded themselves to the pin. The entire job started out being a simple wheel bearing replacement and wound up a job from hell.
thx for the help