65 Mustang diff

Hey All
this is my first post, so I thank you those who help me out.
I have a 65 Mustang with a 289 and a C4. This car is currently under restoration.
My query is what diff I have in it. My educated guess is an 8 inch. What though is the 8.8inch. Was this a later model diff or did it also come out in car of this age. What are the differences between the 8inch and the 8.8

cheers
Dan

8.8s came much later, they have a rear cover like 90% of other rear ends. The 8" and 9" (and the smaller one that would have come on a 6cyl. early stang?) have removable carriers on the front of the rear end and do not have a removable cover on the back. You should have an 8", that's what it will be if the car came from the factory with a 289/c4 and nobody changed it out to something else. I'm sure there's an easy way to tell the 8s from the 9s, probably by counting the bolts that hold the carrier to the housing, but the search function should give you that answer pretty easily.

Originally Posted by casadepunklife

The 8" and 9" (and the smaller one that would have come on a 6cyl. early stang?) have removable carriers on the front of the rear end and do not have a removable cover on the back.

The old 6 cyl. rearends are 4 lug and have a rear differential cover unlike the 8 and 9 inch.

A quick way i tell is to look at the bottom two nuts that hold the chunk to the axle housing. On a 9inch, you cannot fit a regular socket around the nuts, you have to get them with a box end wrench. On an 8 inch the nuts are right there and easily accessable with a straight socket. Mostly big cars like galaxies and t-birds or high performance cars like the Boss, Mach 1, or big block mustangs came with a 9inch. I would say its probably an 8 inch.

Hi all,
cheers for your responses. hepcat69, I had heard about the socket trick but I couldn't remember which diff the socket fit on and which it didn't.
Does anyone have any suggestions to beef the 8inch up a bit, and the better parts to change it to a posi drive etc(I think I have that right, please correct me if I am off the mark).


cheers
Dan