Anyone ever used another rear???
 

Tried to do a search on this but didnt find anything..Has anyone tried or experimented with different rears such as a 10 bolt out of a camaro or an 8.8 out of a mustang? and yes I know a 12 bolt is a stronger rear i dont want to debate this.

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

I have had good luck with the 4 that I have pounded on. One is in a 78 Camaro with a stout 350 engine, 350 trans with 4500 stall ACC converter, 456 gears in a locked 8.5 rearend. Another is in a 81 Camaro with a mild built 400 s.b. engine, 350 trans with a 3500 stall converter, 456 gears locked 8.5 rearend. Both transmissions had B&M shift kits installed when built. I ran 10 inch slicks on both with no problems. The other 2 were street cars that saw drag strip action from time to time. A year or so back one of the hot rod books that I get ran story on building them up for hi horsepower cars and said they would live. Yes I would have rather had a 12 bolt but hard to find and I didn't want to have to mortage my house for race car parts. If you got em, use em. Ron. (Mr Round Tuit)

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

RON586, Do you still have the 78 or 81 Camaro? If so, could you measure the width from backing plate to backing plate on the rear end? I had an 80 Trans Am that had the 4 wheel disc brakes and the rears were vented rotors. I am wondering about using one of these under our trucks!

PS: I have a 72 C20 with rear leafs, so the swap would prolly be fairly easy.

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

I still have both of them. We got about 5 inches of snow last night so it will be a week or so before I can get to them but will get the information to you as soon as I can. Sorry if this is a hijack. Ron (Mr Round Tuit)

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

s-10 blazer rears work well too.......think they r 52 or 53 from backing plate to backing plate

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

I have read that you can use the rear end off of an impala SS '94 through '96, which has disc brakes, and a 3.08 posi. The caprice cop cars had a similar beefy disc brake rear end, but it wasn't as wide as the SS rear end. This is what will be going in my truck (I will be putting in a cummins 4BT diesel engine with a tko-500 tranny. the 3.08 rear end with 29.5" tires will put me at 71 mph at torque peak (which is usually also the point of lowest brake specific fuel consumption) in 5th gear - perfect!).

see impalassforum.com - they have a parts forum.

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

I put a Dana 60 rear into my 92 truck. A little fab work was required though.

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

81 camaro 10 bolt 55 inches bp to bp.

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

Just remember that some of the Camaro 10-bolts were 7.5 inch ring gear where as the truck(corprate)10-bolts were 8.5 inch ring gears
Hope this helps,
Shane

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

That sounds insane, be sure to take lots of pic's :metal:

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

TY, Ron! I'll measure the two in my trucks to see if theres a difference or if so how short the Maro/AMs Tran would be.

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

Oh, I will! My cummins 4BT parts catalog and maintenance manual just arrived today. I am so psyched!

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

Yeah, 82+. Avoid these unless you want to just buy 20 or 30 and change them out like underwear.

Re: Anyone ever used another rear???
 

I wear a pair of underwear for 3 weeks........... :jdp:

Yeah, the disc rear on my trans am was an '80 with WS6 susp. and rear vented rotors.