I’m an old geezer car guy. In the last 40 years I have set up a lot of 9” Ford rearend gearsets. I would wrestle the case into a big vice, let it slip out a time or two, usually crushing a finger in the process. I was always afraid I was going to break a flange off in the process, or mar the gasket sealing surface. The height of my vice stand was all wrong for setting up the gears. I had finally had enough and decided to make a stand to do the job easier…

Step 1:

I had an old rear that I needed to get ready to race. I happened to have some scrap heavy angle iron handy, so I cut two pieces long enough to let me run a couple of bolts through each side of the case mounting bolts and lift the case an inch or so off of the table.

I took the two pieces and marked the holes I wanted to use and drilled two corresponding holes in each piece so I could bolt them to the case. I took care to insure that the case was level when the uprights were bolted to the case and set upright on the workbench.

I cut two more pieces of angle iron about 10” long for bases. Then I welded the bases to the uprights and bolted it to the case. I offset the bases slightly to the rear to account for the additional weight of the gears and differential, etc once assembled. I can't believe it took so long to do this! It's simple and easy, but it will change your world when it comes to doing third member repair!

BTW, you could easily add a handle to the top of each bracket and use it to store and move your spare gearsets.