Early 8.2 posi unit?

So I picked this up a couple years ago and haven't put it in anything yet. It's supposed to be an early 8.2 posi unit. It has the 4 spider gears. What's strange is the carrier bearings are different sizes between the left and right.
Anyone ever heard of or seen anything like that before?
I'll try and get pics up

 

not strange, fairly common in 68/69

 

68-70 Buick only 8.2.

 

I didnt know Buicks had them, but Pontiac had a 4 pinion diff in that era

 

Maybe Brian or Monzaz can verify.

 

the Pontiac 4 pinion still used the same size bearing on both sides of the carrier.

 

The 68-70 Buick 8.2” had an optional 4-pinion posi unit as well. The 3:64 Stage1 rear that I restored before winter had a 4-pinion unit.

 

3.42 also had the 4 pinion posi.

 

The 8.25 68 69 70 Buick and LeSabre 10 bolt 8.25 rears are very well build designed for buick rear ends. 1.875 Pinion shaft bearing is larger for better oiling, Pinion is lowered for better ring to pinion engagement like a 9" Larger driver side carrier bearing to handle more torque load... But GM was pretty much already well on its way to creating a Corparate rear and there was NO following for the rear. Hard times were coming and they needed to make one rear to do it all.

Jim
JD

 

That “large 12bolt”,as I call it,would have been an ultimate rearend for GM,but they did nothing with it.
The 8.5” has proven to be great though.

 

except for the 90-98 lol. When GM decided to go 30 spline and not increase the carrier hub bearing diameter. BOY that was an era of fixin... Jim

 

All of the new carriers have a larger bearing hub.

 

Oh Yes, Just as Brian said... The aftermarket was way ahead of GM on the problem. ALL aftermarket 8.5 / 8.6 carrier have the larger carrier bearing hubs for the 30 spline axles. They even did the 28 spline same casting.

Auburn still has 8.5 carriers with small carrier hubs for GM stock replacement / repair units.


Jim
JD