Pinto Car Club of America

Last July I purchased a 29 Mercedes kit car built by a guy during the late 80's. The donor cars were a 74 Maverick for its 302 V8 and a 73 Pinto for most of the other components along with a rebuilt C4 transmission of unknown date. He also used a 1978 Pinto rear end. Somewhere over the years the left rear axle got bent, which I did not know upon purchase. The left rear wheel wabbles slightly, only about a 3/8" or so, but enough someone in traffic informed me of it. I only feel a little wabble when I brake.

I have been looking around for a replacement and so far have only found a 1973 Pinto left rear axle shaft available locally. Is there any reason why I could not use this left rear axle shaft on my car's rear end?

Thank you in advance if you can help and even if not.

I do not think the 73 axle is going to work for you.  I believe they are different but I do not remember what the difference is.  I had a bearing go out on a beater 72 I had a few years back and just tried to swap the axle with one from a later  model and it would not work.  I had to buy a new bearing.  Where are you located at?  I think I still have that axle kicking around somewhere which was from the drivers side.

I'm in the southern Massachusetts area.

Is it a 6 3/4 rearend ? It should be the same....

I was going to do the same thing with a 73 axle shaft in my original 78 axle, they do not interchange.

They ARE the same length, but the bearing size is larger on the 73.

Also, the lug studs are different on the 73, they have a short shoulder at the base of them which is no present on the 78 axle shaft studs. This difference causes problems with mounting the drums as the 78 drums have smaller holes than the 73 drums do.

So if you want to use 73 axles in your 78 axle or vice versa, you will need to purchase bearings and drums to match.



In my case, I went and used the entire 73 axle, drum to drum, on my 78, the only difference was the metal plates the axle sits on, and the rubber pads, the under side metal plate and pad can be reused. I no longer use a 73 axle though, as I now have a Mustang II 8" which was a direct swap, including the plates and pads. The 73 axle I was using only has 28k miles on it and will go into my 73 station wagon.