Picked up a rear out of a 74 Buick that had 455/400, I wanted a spare for my 1974 Olds 98 which has a 12 bolt posi. Anyway I opened up the Buick rear, it's an open rear with 12 bolts on the cover and 12 bolts on the ring gear, it also uses bolt in (non c clip) axles. A Chevy 12 bolt Car rear cover will not fit the back which is quite a bit bigger, the whole center casting is pretty big and the axles look beefy. I haven't pulled the axles out to look but I'm hoping that they can be narrowed like a 9" Ford. Anybody here know about these rears? Thanks Jarhead
I took out the axles today, they are 31 spline and pretty beefy. There is plenty of axle to shorten and turn down to fit an A-car 12 bolt or 8.5 both which use 30 spline axles. I saved the axles, housing ends and 12" brakes. I believe that housing had the thickest tubes of any stock rearend I have ever seen, they were almost 3/8" thick. This looks like a very cheap way to end up with non c clip axles and bigger brakes. The axles could also be turned down to 28 or even 26 splines to fit various GM rears like 8.2 and 7.5 10 bolts. I have a 94 Caprice copcar 8.5 posi rear with disc brakes, it looks like these axles might work with those cool rear brakes with aluminum PBR calipers. I'll post the results here.
12 bolt cover... sounds like you have an example of the '71+ version of the 9 3/8 Buick rear. Ck v8Buick archives for more info on this rear. Have never sent any of the late 9 3/8 Buick 31 spline axles out to shorten & respline, might come in handy though. Mainly, I cut the A10 housing ends off junk B series housings. Bought a cordless Dewalt Sawsall for the task p The 8.5 A-body r/e for my '63 LeMans has such ends, coupled with Strange axles & spool. Your Caprice disc 8.5 rear will have c-clip axles, have parted quite a few of these. Without correctly coverting the Caprice housing to A10 ends, doubt the modified Buick axles will be of any use. Might mike the area next to where the A10 bearing seats, then compare to diam of c-clip axle rides in the 5707 axle bearing. Got Posi? :3gears: Roger
Thanks Roger I miked the axles, they are plenty big the entire length to respline to 30 spline. I am aware that the 8.5 has c clips but I might be able to make them work with the discs, if not those 12" brakes work really well. I kept the housing ends and will weld them on to make the axles work. I have always hated c clip axles, I feel they are unsafe and nothing but a ploy by manufactures to get you to buy new axles instead of just bearings. I've been putting Ford axles in GM rears since the 1970s and it's nice to see a GM alternative that's dirt cheap in junk yards. I gave $40 for the entire rear end. Jarhead
the only disadvantage to using that rear is the availability of part for it, especially different gear sets. i may be wrong though. sounds like a bullet proof set up if it could be mad to fit an a-body and use the press on axle bearings.
THere's lots of info on those rears down on the Boatload forum. I don't recall seeing any on making them fit a A-body though. Finding posi units and gears is the toughest thing. Nothing steeper than a 3.42 seems to be available, and those appear to be quite rare. Nick
