(Work done around Dec 2015-April 2016)

I used an 8 inch rear end out of a ‘77 Ford Maverick. This is basically a bolt-in for ‘65 Mustangs as the spring mounting widths are the same between the two. There is a small track width difference. If I remember right, the Maverick rear works out to be something like 1/2” narrower per side than a factory ‘65 Mustang 8 inch rear (though it’s been awhile since I looked it up, so double check that if you actually need the info for something :) ). It also uses a bigger u-joint than the 6-cyl/manual rear end does, so I found a driveshaft out of a ‘66 Mustang V8/auto to swap in. Since I already have the 3.03 3-speed transmission, the same as a V8 would have, the driveshaft makes for a direct swap. My existing parking brake cables were able to be reused. There’s a difference in the axle tube diameter between the Maverick and the 65 Mustangs, so you need different shock mounting plates (mine are just for a ‘67-70 Mustang) and different u-bolts. The other thing I did differently was I went ahead and changed to the dual exhaust rear brake line setup. Ford used different hose setups and placements for the single and dual exhaust cars. If you put dual exhaust on a car that was originally single exhaust and you leave the original brake line routing, the exhaust will run very close to the rubber hose between the front-to-rear metal line and the rear end housing distribution block. The dual exhaust setup moves where the hose bracket mounts on the body (the one where the rubber hose joins the main metal line) and places a bracket on the rear axle vent hose mount so the junction is moved to the side of the axle tube instead of on top.

I did have to clean the housing up a lot as it was pretty rusty. I ended up finding a non-factory weld joining one of the axle tubes to the main housing. I wasn’t sure if this was something to worry about or not, so I stripped it completely down and took it a shop for them to check over. They said the axle tubes weren’t straight anymore, but they were able to get it straightened back out and they went ahead and replaced the wheel bearings and axle seals for me as well. Then I just repainted everything and put it back together, and went ahead and rebuilt the drum brakes on it as well. The Maverick axles use a larger wheel hub/mounting flange than the ‘65 Mustangs did, and I kept getting lost on whether various bigger drum or disc options would work on it. It uses the same size of drum brakes as factory V8 Mustangs, so I decided to just keep it simple and rebuild the Maverick setup instead of trying to upgrade already. I ran into an issue with one of the new drums I bought apparently being machined wrong, so I had to get the new drums turned—thankfully that’s cheap. I think it might still be a little wonky, but it’s not horribly noticeable. I should replace it someday though. Maybe. Oh, and I ended up having to make a couple of the axle gaskets. There are metal ones that go between the housing and the brake backing plate. I could find new ones of those. Then there’s supposed to be a paper gasket in between the backing plate and the axle retainer. I couldn’t find new ones of those that seemed quite right (I don’t remember what issues I was having with them, though). So I just cut some new ones out of some gasket material.