40 Ford to 40 Merc rear swap

[rotorwrench]

Originally Posted by alanwoodieman

have we all forgotten that mercs are 116", fords are 112" DUH on all of us

If a person researches further than just the wheel base, they find that the length was all forward of the firewall. They even had an extension to mount the wishbone up in the extended location.

Whether there is a difference in actual length between the drive components of a Ford and the Mercury is unknown to me since I have no Mercury rear drive assemblies to measure. Most of us would like to know this information but only someone who had done the change could tell us for certain.

What is the difference in length between the torque tubes if any?

If the integral driveshaft/pinion gear was just done as a strength measure then they likely are the same. Using the Mercury parts of that vintage is always contingent on whether the whole package will fit a particular application. Cutting the Mercury shaft may be fruitless since there are no splines in the normal ford pinion location and the shaft diameter may be too small to cut any on there. It would be much easier to purchase a new 3.54:1 ring & pinion set.