Rear end Info

[Blue89rs]

I've been collecting rear axles, and I've been noticing some differences in axles and carriers. Could some please elaborate?

I thought the limited slip carrier I have would just drop in my open, drum axle but I was wrong. They have the same ring gear, but the limited carrier ring gear is offset towards the driver side more. And now that I have a borg warner disk rear, it looks like the carriers are different again! Are there four different types of carriers for the three different axles? I'm confused.

[89vert]

only thing I can tell you is a 3.23 and up carrier is not the same as a 3.08 and down carrier

[iroc22]

open drum carriers are different from GM posi units and the BW axle is a totally different animal...

and as 89vert said above, you once again have different carriers for different gearsets.

[79 Z28]

10 bolt and 9 bolt different, 2 series and 3 series different ring and pinion combo

[Blue89rs]

I need to bring this up again, because I stuffed my 94 disk axle in my 86.

The ratio on the axle I currently have (94 disk) is close to 2.7 something. It is a GM axle housing, it is an open rear, and has 10 bolts on the pumkin cover.

So would the largest ring/pinion gear setup I can get for this carrier be 3.08? And what is the possibility of getting a different carrier to fit in this axle housing???

[79 Z28]

yea that makes it kinda crappy, its a 2 series carrier, 3.08 is the highest you can go. unless you get a ring gear spacer, but they are kinda hokey. as for different carriers fitting, as long as its a 7.5 carrier gm or a 7.5 aftermarket, it will work, only difference is the mount flange location for the ring gear (2,3 series difference)

[Blue89rs]

So I basically just wasted my Monday. Grrrr....

Now the best thing to do would be to 3 series axle huh? How do I find one of those and what models do they come in? By the sound of it, I should have gotten the 3 series axle to start with, then put 4.11's in it with a posi.... doh.

But since I already have 2 series axle, with a 2 series posi on my bench, would it really be that hokey to space it out with a 4.11??? This is for my V6, so torque isn't a huge problem ::)

[79 Z28]

in your application it would be fine to use a spacer, its just for higher power, it makes the bolts weak cuz it spaces it out. id say do it.

[Blue89rs]

hehe, I've been out having fun. BUT I HAVE PROBLEMS(with the car)! ???

I replaced the rear pads because they were grindy and squeelly, but it still squeeks when I corner the car!?!?!? Anyone else had this problem?

And, I grabbed my GTA wheels and put them on, because my normal drum rear wheels poke out about 2". But the GTA's still poke out about 0.5". I know they are the right ones, because the honeycomb is out further than the other GTA's I have (2.5" versus 3" from the lip to the face) Is the rear axle from a 4th gen wider than a disk rear 3rd gen?

And how much axle play is there. When I put the new pads in (which is way easy to do) I noticed that the axle had alot of end play. Should it be solid in there?? My c-clip drum axle didn't have this much play.

[79 Z28]

the 4th gen diffs are wider then the 3rd gen ones by a couple inches. as for c clip play it should be only like a 1/16" any more, somethings prolly worn out.

[Blue89rs]

Rats, foiled again. So a 91 disk rear is narrower than a 94 disk rear? I didn't realize this was going to be so much work! Now I'm concerned that the car may be too wide to autocross. It's at about 74" wide. Is there a nice stock 4th gen wheel I could put on all 4? Or will I have to custom order some weird offsets to make this all look good? It doesn't look bad..... but the wheel is all the way to the outer lip.

[budless]

you can get whats called a thick gear set its where they make the crown gear with a thicker flange to take up space to meet the carrier....in that case you can get any gear set...