MG Sports Cars

Hey everyone, looking for someone to point me in the right direction.

I'm trying to finish up my MG-B 5L Rover project before I start my Sophmore year of Engineering at VCU...

My father and I enlisted the help of an individual to build a ford 8" housing roughly 1.5years ago...

Unfortunately he's not been able to finish the housing and its one of the parts keeping me from getting this car on the road... I considered running the stock rear end but I already have the a built posi differential which I'd prefer not go to waste...

Is there anyone out there currently building a ford 8" housing using the B axle tubes? Or could anyone point me to a source of correct axles so I can have a local shop build the rear end?

Thank you so much

Robert

Try Moser Engineering in Plymouth, IN
[www.moserengineering.com]
....look under SHOP SERVICES for pricing.
These are the chaps that converted a Mustang 8.8 axle to MGB width for my conversion (disassembled diff, shortened hsg, cut and resplined shafts, converted from 5 stud to 4 stud and reassembled) in 5 hours.
Be advised that not all axle shafts can be shortened and resplined depending on the shaft diameter at the point of cutting new splines (some shafts have some degree of necking down)

Ted Lathrop could set you up with an 8" I'm pretty sure. Not sure anyone else officially offers them, but someone may chime in w/info for sure.

Beyond that, have you considered Currie or Mosier?
[www.currieenterprises.com]
[www.moserengineering.com]

Given the measurements & lug pattern you want, they can build the rear end for you. For measurements you'll need to tell them flange to flange width, whether the pumpkin is centered or offset one side or the other, pinion angle, & and spring perch locations.

For the tube ends, consider 9" Ford (aka "big bearing") ends vs. 8" or MG ends (if that'd even be an option). The 9" big bearing ends opens you up to a host of after market brake options at reasonable prices.

Does anyone happen to have a good source for axles? I feel like Moser will be charing more than I can afford

Have you called them yet? It's been a long time since I bought my axles from Moser, but I didn't think they were expensive at the time. They have a big advantage: economies of scale.

I suppose I should give them a call first! I just glanced at their website and assumed they would be pricey, although everything else seemed very reasonable.

I'll let everyone know the price in case others are wondering.

Thanks again for the great site Curtis and to everyone else for their help.

Isn't Ted the owner of fastcarsinc.? If so he can definitly help .I've looking at his 8inch for my 74 mgbgt .on line for a couple of months now. comes with Wilwood disc set-up .sounds exactly what your looking for . My first time to the board by the way. been reading you guys for 7-8 months and have learned so much ,can't thank everyone enough for their knowledge for when I convert to 302 in my own car. hopfully in the very near future

There are several good options mentioned. I also used Moser for narrowing my 8.8 and I was impressed with their pricing. I want to say it was like $125 to narrow the housing and around $225 for two new axles. I was in the neighborhood so I avoided shipping, but still it seemed pretty reasonable to me.

I called Moser and explained that I wanted to use a 8" housing with mg tubes.. I also explained the axles needed to be shortened, resplined, and threaded on the end. The gentleman claimed they don't "do that type of thing" when I discussed threading them.

I think I'll call back tomorrow as this guy didn't seem like he knew what he was talking about.

I know theres information out there using mg tubes + the ford housing but I can't seem to find it. Most seem to just stick with the ford 8" housing/tubes

Are you planning on spoke-wheel hubs? That didn't occur to me earlier. I wouldn't expect Moser to know much about that...

If I were you, I'd call Dale Spooner who operates a high-end engine machining shop called "Motion Machine" over in Danville. We visited it during this year's BritishV8 meet. Dale's MGB V8 has a hybrid axle (Ford 8" center with MG tubes and 4-lug hubs - you can see his car in the photo gallery.) He probably won't volunteer to machine axles for you, but I'm sure Dale would be happy to answer any questions you have about what he did. The phone number is 434-799-2604.

I had a friend who had done a Ford 8 with MG shafts. We did mine and it was not straight. I had it fixed by a local shop. They would not make the axels. A machinest in Spartenburg did my axels. Price was $250.
I started on a second one and had the lacal shop do the housing. The man who did my last axels says he will not do another set.
So now I have a housing and am looking for some one to do the axels. I will be using wire wheels on this one, so my only option seems to be getting axles made.
I know this doesn't help much. Getting the housing done is the easy part. Its the axels that are tough

Steve

I have a narrowed 8" Ford in my roadster, done several years ago by Glen Towery. Mosler made the axles for the rear. You may want to contact Glen who had spare axles at one time.

Having said that, why would we do this instead of just shortening the Ford axles & redrilling them for the 4 lug MG bolt pattern?

If you do this, you will now use self adjusting Ford rear drum brakes or spend unnecessarily for disk brakes, but either way, no more trying to turn the square shaft behind the traction bars, panhard rod, or other obstruction .

Go with "Fast Cars" he's got the 8" Ford down to perfection.

I had a local chassis/race shop shorten my 8". With the length I went with I could still use one axle - got the second from Moser. You can go with rear discs for around $100 - about 175 if you want an e- brake. Speedway weld-on caliper mounts, GM metric calipers-with or without e- brake. Lincoln lsc or explorer rear rotors and a spacer (for the thickness of the drum brake housing - cutting out the center of the drum housing makes a great spacer). I bolted it all together before welding the caliper bracket so I could align it up - tacked the bracket to the housing - unbolted everything and welded it up. Only a slight bit of weld distortion - one whack with a bfh lined everything up again.

Unless you're really set on mg wires or have the pre 67 ford 8" I would probably leave the ford tubes in (pre 67 ford 8" don't have cross webbing on the housing and have tapered tubes.