Technical Help identifying rear end 8.2 or 8.5

Buick, Olds, or Pontiac, all three will work just fine. The u-joint I believe is different, but you can buy adaptor joints. Just tell the vender you need gears for the BOP, not Chevy. The stock posi-tracks are the weak link being cone type. Aftermarkets hold up OK, I probably wouldn't bolt slicks up to every weekend!

 

Googled this, ring gear bolts-

• 7.5, 7.625, 8.5, 8.625 rears have 7/16-20 LEFT HAND thread, and

• 8.2 rears have 3/8-24 RIGHT HAND thread.

 

The GM 8.2 10-bolt was used behind a whole bunch of small blocks and some of the bigger size BOP engines. Such as the 400 inch BOP engines like GTO and 442 had. It is not as strong as the 8.5 10-bolt, but for street driving and IMHO a 400 hp limit the 8.2 should hold up fine. Street tires will spin before the rearend breaks. If your rearend has/had leaf spring mounts, it was probably in a Firebird. Use it if the rearend seems to be good shape.

Coincidentally, the old 55-64 Chevy drop-out third member rearends also have a 8.2 inch ring gear. Not the same gears, just happen to be the same size.

 

So

So we are assuming it’s a BOP rear end with a gm cover from another rear end? Just haven’t seen any of these rears while searching with this cover and it be a BOP rear. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Can you take the cover back off and get the part number's off the gear's and look them up in the GM Parts wiki?

 

@Wes.baker , just confirming; you said there are no c-clips in it. Is that what you checked when you had the cover off, or are you assuming press in axle bearings because of the 4 bolts on the axle housing end, thinking they are for the retainer? Could be just the backing plate bolts, and it is a Camaro/Nova rear end.

 

That’s a really good question that I didn’t even think about. Isn’t that the pin in the carrier that keeps the c-clips in place shown in the second pic where the number of teeth for ring and pinion are shown? If so, guessing you are right about the bolts on the ends just holding the backing plates and it does have c-clips.

 

That pin does not have to be holding c-clips in place but for sure it’s necessary to keep the spider gears in mesh.

 

No c clips. I had the dif cover off thinking I needed to pull c clips to pull axles when I installed a jegs disk brake conversion that I ordered based off info guy gave me on what the rear was out of. He had said was 8.2 GM. So I removed cover and found no c clips, unbolted 4 bolts and axles pulled out.

 

Parts numbers off gear are posted and I looked them up with no luck. I’m going to end up pulling cover back off before I order 373 gear set to make sure I order right stuff.

 

Those are the ratio and date codes that are posted. The part number is about 7 numbers long, probably 180° from the numbers you posted.