Do they tend to have 6.75 or 8.8" rears or does it depend on the engine?
Ford only used 6.75" and 8" rears in all Pinto's. They used both in wagons and non-wagons. Different years and egine/tranny MIGHT be more likely to have the 8".
Bill
My observation is that V-6 cars got the 8 inch rear axle, and 4 cyl cars were fitted with the smaller piece.
mike
I think it is a toss up, I have had 2 4 cyl sdns w/ 8" and 2 sdns w 6.75"
I had 1 4 cyl wgn w/ 8" and 1 w/ 6.75"
But I think it may be safe to say all v-6 models had the 8"
What's the obvious external clues between the two?
If there is no bolt on cover on the rear of the meatball, it is an 8".
Bill
Quote from: dirt track demon on June 23, 2006, 02:24:15 PM
I think it is a toss up, I have had 2 4 cyl sdns w/ 8" and 2 sdns w 6.75"
I had 1 4 cyl wgn w/ 8" and 1 w/ 6.75"
But I think it may be safe to say all v-6 models had the 8"
um, I had a '79 with a v-6 and 6 3/4 rear
krazi
Well Krazi, I guess that pretty much sums it up, there is no method to the madness. ;D
1978 was the last year for the 8" in the Pinto as it was also the last year for production of the Mstg II, where most of the 8" units were installed. In '79, the Fox Mustang came out using the 7.5" integral rearend with the V8 and I can only assume that Ford figured that producing the 8" for just the Pinto was not cost effective. I have a production report that shows only 3.9% of the '79 Pinto production had the V6 in them, so the demand for the 8" would have been very low. Has anyone that has seen these weird combinations of 8" with a 4-cyl ever checked the dataplate to see which rearend the car was actually supposed to have? I'd be curious to see because these cars have been around long enough that anyone could have done anything with them. A case in point is the '80 Cruising Wagon I have. All '80 Pintos were produced with a 4-cyl engine, but my CW has a full V6 drivetrain, including 8" rear, that was installed by the original owner within a couple years of buying the car new. To the untrained eye, it would be hard to tell it wasn't original, but there are some dead give-away items that us Pinto nuts would notice right away!
Hey Brien,
Ben's :1: :9: :8: :0: hatchback has an 8" rear axel.
Quote from: 79panel on June 29, 2006, 08:28:14 PM
A case in point is the '80 Cruising Wagon I have. All '80 Pintos were produced with a 4-cyl engine, but my CW has a full V6 drivetrain, including 8" rear, that was installed by the original owner within a couple years of buying the car new. To the untrained eye, it would be hard to tell it wasn't original, but there are some dead give-away items that us Pinto nuts would notice right away!
Hi again 79panel,
You are also in Calif, right? Do you get any grief from the smog test people about that engine not being available in '80?
mike
As far as Ben's car and any other 1980 Pintos go:
If I remember correctly, 1980 was the last model year of production, and that's typically a time when the parts bins are being emptied so to speak, so as far as axles are concerned, without another vehicle being able to use the exact same subassembly UNMODIFIED, a lot of " leftover" Pinto rear ends may have been being used up" on cars which wouldn't have ordinarily had them.
Ford took a very big hit with all the bad publicity about the Pintos. This resulted in lots of lawsuits and general bad feelings depressed sales considerably which may well have caught up to them big time by the end of the model run, especially if they sizeably underestimated the sales of the optional V-6, 8" diff. package. Ford also has a reputation for squeezing their nickels pretty hard, and getting parts out of current inventory and added to the profit side of the ledger instead of being held in indefinite inventory with only the possibility of a future write off, is a good bet. I'll hazard a guess that this might also have been happening, but to a lesser extent, during the previous few but later years of the model run.
Heck, if you sell a million cars, and your sales mix projections among certain options are off by only 1%, that's still 10,000 units of SOMETHING being left over. It's cheaper to have 10,000 pairs of sport mirrors leftover vs 10,000 rear ends. And more likely to be able to sell them later too.