I've found a 70 Riviera GS in a junkyard and was wondering if I could swap the rear end into my 70 Wildcat. I believe that the GS Rivs had a 3.42 posi rear with a 3-link w/panhard bar as standard equipment. Would I be able to swap the gears and carrier over? Or how hard would it be to swap the entire assembly and modify the suspension on the Wildcat to put in the 3-link? Is the track width close enough for it to work and will the pinion bolt to the Wildcat driveshaft?
Generally, you would have to transfer the internals. The width is pretty much the same at approx. 59" tube flange to tube flange, but some of the mounting is totally different and would be a lot of work to adapt.
As previously stated, you can swap the internals into your current housing. There is a sticky here on the board that explains a great deal about the differences on the 66-70 9-3/8" rear axles from the full size Buicks. Is the 70 Riviera GS housing in good shape, or are the brackets rusting off and the housing pitted badly? Where are you located? Send me a PM and we can discuss it. Thanks, Randy
I read the sticky on the gears for these cars and the gears and carrier shouldn't be a problem then. I was thinking that the 3 link setup in the Riv would give the car a bit better handling than the currunt 4 link. I was just wondering if the lower control arms are in roughly the same location and all that had to be fabbed up was an upper mount and panhard bar. I'll probably just swap the gears and carrier and be done with it. RAMKAT2 you have a PM.
It is very easy to swap the internals, about an hour and a half ( if the gear pattern is good) I did it in my last 70 Wildcat, with 3.42 70 GS Riv gears. You might want to look a the caprice cop car sway bar and build some adapter plates to weld to the bottom of the lower control arms as you may want to box them anyway. I have done this on several 62-64 full size cars and it makes an amazing differance in controlling the rear of the car.
