FS: 8.25 rear axle

[spanks79]

Is there any value in a 8.25 rear axle assembly? Or does anyone Need one? I imagine one could be had locally to anyone looking for less than it would take to ship this thing anywhere.

I only ask because I have managed to collect quite a pile of parts over the last couple months and I want / need to clean up a bit. I'm going to be making a scrap run soon and the 8.25 out of my donar car is just sitting there taking up space. I hate to scrap it if it is useable to someone or if I could use he parts, but I just don't see it. I don't even know if any of the brake hardware or drums will work on my 9.25, but that's about all I could see keeping.

[spanks79]

Well I came across an interesting discovery whle trying to determine if this 8.25 is worth any thing it terms of compatible parts before it goes to the scrap yard. All of the brake hardware looks identical to the 9.25 drum bakes. The drum diameter looks to be the same, but the brake shoe width is different. However to my suprise the 8.25 shoes are WIDER than the 9.25 shoes. 8.25 axle brake shoe width appears to be 2.5" and the 9.25 axle brake shoe measures 2". Now this is measuring the parts off of the axles I have, I am assuming that they are the correct shoes and someone has not been goofing around and installing the wrong brake shoes. Maybe Arthur can look in his catalogues to see if the shows and drums are interchangable or not. All this surprised me because I would have expected the bigger heavy duty 9.25 rear axle to have the bigger brakes. Unless I am missing something like "effective stoping power" for example the smaller shoe actually applies more psi of stopping force per lbs of pedal effort, where the pressure on the drum is more spread out across the wider shoe. Just my random thoughts.

[sigmfsk]

Hi Spanks:
I think there's some funny business going on.

I think that all 9.25 got the 11 x 2.5 drums, while all other axles got 11 x 2.0 drums.

The 74 parts catalog shows 11x2.0 and 11x2.5, but doesn't provide info on what goes on what:



but the brochures show that the standard setup was 11x2.0 while the cop setup was 11x2.5


The brochures also show the station wagons getting the 11x2.5. I didn't see anything in the brochures about the towing package getting 11x2.5, but I believe it did. 177ellwood was talking about how he had his Monaco (1975, with towing package, and 9.25 axle) in the parking lot at CEVS a few years back, and the cop guys were looking at his axle, puzzled that it had a 9.25 axle, with the larger brakes, but the VIN wasn't a K-code.

I'm guessing all this means that k-code, station wagon, or trailer package all had a 9.25, and all 9.25's had 11x2.5. Maybe we could learn more by looking in the parts catalog at the backing plates, or looking at the chassis guide. I have the Fury I can measure, too.

your friend in braking,
arthur

[spanks79]

That's crazy! It makes total sense but what are the chances that I end up with a 8.25 that some one upgraded the shoes and drums to 2.5", which im not even sure is possible, and then I buy a 9.25 that some one put in a set of 2" shoes with presumably 2.5" drums.

The 8.25 came out of the white car and those shoes are definitely newer, they look to have few miles on them almost worth reusing.

The 9.25 came from Rick Shields in FL, presumably a real "cop car" rear axle. It's 2" shoes are a rusty mess.

The problem is I have the axles in pieces and in different boxes and in different geographic locations so lying it all out side by side is not currently possible.

I can see putting 2" shoes inside 2.5" drums, because maybe thats all that was avaliable, but I don't see how 2.5" drums and shoes could be retrofitted onto an axle designed for 2" shoes. I seems that he backing plate to axle flange distance would be incorrect. According to your chart they definitely list a 2" drum and a 2.5" drum. I will have to try and round up all my drums and see the difference.

[sigmfsk]

Hi Spanks:

How about this from the service manual:


So it seems:
1) for all 1974 Monacos, the option was 11x2 or 11x2.5.
2) but the deciding factor wasn't 8.25 or 9.25.
3) a sedan 360 with a 2.71 axle got a 11x2, while everyone else got a 11x2.5.

Even if that statement isn't entirely correct (would a 4-door sedan 360 get a 11x2 while a 2-door got a 11x2.5?), it seems that the 11x2 and 11x2.5 would interchange from a 8.25 to a 9.25 (since there's not two 11x2.5 drums shown in the parts catalog).

And if we presume that a 9.25 always got a 11x2.5, then the 11x2.5 setup should swap from your 8.25 to your 9.25.

So your 11x2.5 on your 8.25 is no longer a mystery. But why do you have a 9.25 with an 11x2? It doesn't sound right, but I suppose it could have been a factory weird install. Sadly, I don't have my Marin County stuff, but I have the Fury I can measure - more than just the drum stuff, I could measure axle tube length or such if it helped.

your friend in right-sized braking,
arthur

[spanks79]

That does clear up the mystery on the 8.25. And I probably could have figured that out if I could have placed the drums side by side to determine they were the same. And really, if some one or some municipal garage serviced the brakes on this "cop" 9.25 I have, I bet it would be possible that they could have installed the incorrect shoes 2" vs 2.5". Maybe the parts guy screwed up or maybe they got a smokin deal on a pallet of brake shoes for their fleet!

Either way, I am going to keep all of the brake hardware off of this axle before I get rid of it.

[spanks79]

Well, I found out the 8.25 is worth about $20 in scrap iron (with the brake parts removed). Not much, but it contributed well to the 1819 lbs I took to the recycler yesterday. Wo hoo, $200 for the Monaco fund! Thats the first time I had ever made a scrap run before. Cool part was they unloaded the truck with a huge magnet crane. That magnet snapped up that 8.25, along with other much heavier pieces, like it was a twig!