food for thought: 8.5" 10 bolt in a 4th gen
04-06-2013, 12:28 PM
#1
food for thought: 8.5" 10 bolt in a 4th gen So I keep hearing these horror stories that center around the weakness inherent in the 7.5" 10 axle in 4th gen fbodies. Conventional wisdom is to save your dough and buy a 9", S60, 12 bolt or 8.8. At the same time, I thought that I've never has these worries with my 10 bolt, which has a 8.5 ring gear. So I just have to ask: how hard would it be to modify one of the readily available "big" 10 bolts so that it would fit into a 4th gen f-body?
Would it be as simple as cutting off the leaf-spring brackets from a 2nd gen f-body axle, and welding on the appropriate hardware? What about a 90s B-body rear axle?
Thoughts?
Would it be as simple as cutting off the leaf-spring brackets from a 2nd gen f-body axle, and welding on the appropriate hardware? What about a 90s B-body rear axle?
Thoughts?
04-06-2013, 03:45 PM
#3
Nothing is impossible.... you can cut and reweld the spring pearches on any rear the only hang up is making a TQ arm bracket that will hold up. The main reason I did not keep my car all GM is simply due to availability, the 8.8 are available with 3.08, 3.27,3.55, 3.73 and 4.10 gears and A LOT came with LSD... try locating the same with an 8.5"
04-07-2013, 08:28 AM
#5
its been mentioned before in this section.
I am with you 81 TA the corporate 8.5 especially without c clips is tough, and everything had them from 73-81 or so: camaros , firebirds , novas ,venturas , malibus ,impalas ,etc... someone could do it like with 8.8's just weld on the axle tubes with all the correct brackets from a blown up 4th gen rear and then you need a torque arm solution like 96 lt1 said.
currently I have an 81ta (72 nose) and a 73 ventura 6 banger car that both have original 8.5 corporates in the garage - yes they were even in 6 banger cars through the mid 70's , the whole point was to get rid of the 12 bolt and the 8.2 10 bolt which was weak with one rear end to use in the whole model line up including 1/2 ton trucks/blazers/suburbans.
Oh and the 8.5 corporate also came in 442's and hurst olds (373posi's) and grand nationals (342 posi) many GN's have run in the 9's and 10's on pretty much stock 8.5's they are debatably slightly weaker than a 12 bolt.
I am with you 81 TA the corporate 8.5 especially without c clips is tough, and everything had them from 73-81 or so: camaros , firebirds , novas ,venturas , malibus ,impalas ,etc... someone could do it like with 8.8's just weld on the axle tubes with all the correct brackets from a blown up 4th gen rear and then you need a torque arm solution like 96 lt1 said.
currently I have an 81ta (72 nose) and a 73 ventura 6 banger car that both have original 8.5 corporates in the garage - yes they were even in 6 banger cars through the mid 70's , the whole point was to get rid of the 12 bolt and the 8.2 10 bolt which was weak with one rear end to use in the whole model line up including 1/2 ton trucks/blazers/suburbans.
Oh and the 8.5 corporate also came in 442's and hurst olds (373posi's) and grand nationals (342 posi) many GN's have run in the 9's and 10's on pretty much stock 8.5's they are debatably slightly weaker than a 12 bolt.
