How to Choose a GM Axle for Your Performance Car

This video features an impromtu inverview with Brian Trick, who has been building solid rear axles primarily for GM cars for 27 years for performance applications. We discuss the differences between the most widely used rear axles in GM cars, such as the corporate 8.2" 10 bolt, corporate 8.5" 10 bolt, the Oldsmobile O-type 12 bolt, and the venerated 8-7/8" Chevrolet 12 bolt. He also compares the 12 bolt to using a Ford 9". This information should help you decide which housing is the best for your individual application, so you can get the most from your build without wasting money. He gets into some detail about things such as the difference between weld on axle housing ends for Chevy 12 bolts versus C-clip eliminator kits, as well as which internal parts he prefers and why.

Although we don't discuss the GM 7.5" or 7-5/8" axles that came stock in most 1978 through 1988 rear wheel drive G-bodies (Cutlass, Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Regal, etc) I belive most performance enthusiasts know they're not an axle worth spending money on to improve. I have personally broken two 7.5" axles in a 1984 Cutlass with a 350 Olds that ran mid-14's in the quarter mile. One of them was an open rear end, and the spider gears exploded from doing excessive one wheeled burnouts. The other one fractured the factory 3.73:1 pinion gear.

My rear end is going into my 1971 Cutlass S behind a 550-580HP 482 cubic inch big block olds with ported Speedmaster Olds aluminum heads and a 605"/.609" lift hydraulic roller camshaft. The car will be a street car that I occaisionally drag race, and I want the car to corner well too (it already has 18" rims and tires). Here is the parts list for my axle:
Chevrolet 12 bolt housing
Moser Engineering 7900 Axle Housing Ends
Moser Engineering bolt on bearing retainer plates
Timken SET20 (Ford) tapered roller bearings
Motive Gear 3:42:1 ring & pinion
Eaton TrueTrac limites slip differential
Moser Engineering 33 spline axles
Strange Chromooly 1350 steel pinion Yoke U1601
Oldsmobile W27 aluminum differential cover for Chevy 12 bolt P/N SU3806T
Energy Suspension Polyeurethane bushings

Video explaining the Eaton TrueTrac posi unit:
https://youtu.be/lZmsY2YvVsc

Видео How to Choose a GM Axle for Your Performance Car канала Robert Powers