floating axles, camber for Ford 8.8" axle

[lifespeed]

I'm considering upgrading my Ford 8.8" axle with Winter's Performance floating axle spindles, hubs and axles. I am getting tired of the poor wear life and load carrying capacity of the factory c-clip axle design. This is in a 2004 Mercury Marauder. Yes, I know the ubiquitous Ford 9" makes a lot of sense in many applications, but this car has parallel 4-link suspension with a Watts link that mounts above the center section of the diff. Adapting the suspension to a 9" would be painful, to say the least.

So I thought I would hire a competent axle shop (suggestions are welcome) to weld on the floater spindle axle tube ends, while I fabricate an ABS tone ring to bolt to the inside of the brake rotor mounting circle, as well as caliper mounting plates to weld to the axle tubes. Obviously the factory brakes are gone, I do have the Wilwood NMDP calipers on the rear right now.

The question I have is, would it be reasonable to run 0.5 degree cambered spindles with the Winter's ball drive hub? These have a ball bearing in each large "spline" to allow for the slight misalignment between axle and hub due to the camber. I don't know if this setup is used in any kind of endurance racing, or if it would be reasonable to use in a street car application with any kind of reasonable life expectancy. The negative camber in the rear would be quite a handling improvement, but I don't want to replace the ball drive flanges every 10K miles.

Any circle track guys here familiar with the Winter's setups?

See pages 41 and 48 of their catalog . . . (warning, they still use Adobe Flash)

[DavidBoren]

Honestly, I think you could probably gain more grip going to a different suspension, rather than fussing with cambered floater hubs.

Parallel four links are not the best when it comes to corners, so a little camber isn't going to fix the lack of articulation.

I wouldn't bother with the cambered hubs, personally. Definitely get the floater kit. You wanted to eliminate the problematic C-clip axles, so why replace them with another wearable item? Just my opinion, take it for what it's worth.

[lifespeed]

Agreed, not to mention the bendy axle problem with C-clips introduces camber change so simply going to a floating axle is a huge improvement.

I am looking into replacing the factory 8.8" axle in my 2004 Mercury Marauder with an aftermarket full-floater Ford 9" for various reasons mostly related to durability and handling. A few years back I updated the suspension with larger tubular anti-roll bars, Penske 7500DA shocks, billet aluminum rear control arms and Watt's link. It works pretty well (except for the axle shaft wear and other issues), but I did have trouble with rear shock tuning and air spring rate, having to soften them quite a bit. I came to the conclusion the urethane bushings were worsening the inherent binding in the factory parallel 4-link.

So, if I'm going to all the trouble to put a different axle in there I may as well give some thought to things like the roll center location set by the Watt's link and the 4-link binding.

I was thinking of using a stock car (late model, modified) suspension cage or birdcage instead of welded-on brackets to mount the 4-link. These have bearings between the control arm brackets and the axle tube. They can also include brake brackets. Seems pretty appealing, not to mention saves a bunch of fabrication. What could possibly go wrong? If I am not mistaken, floating the control arms on the housing also eliminates the inherent bind of a parallel four-link (trying to twist the axle housing as a sway bar). I understand I will have to install a torque arm. I believe the dirt-track approach with the torque arm mounted to the chassis with spring and shock is not necessary or desirable for a pavement car. Brake torque can be applied through the control arms via a birdcage incorporating a caliper mount. This seems reasonable enough.

Has anybody done this? Can they hold up to street use and live a reasonable lifespan? I'm pretty sure they run these things on dirt tracks too and are sealed against grit and grime. I do plan to retain urethane bushings on the frame end, using rod ends at the axle end.

[no go nova]

Why not run a three link set up with a watts link and a splined style anti roll bar?