As title! Will be starting work on my '71 302 Grabber soon, its still out in the yard at the mo but wanted to double check which axle it has! Gonna be a fair bit of work getting this up to scratch again- cant wait!!!! Nothing like a good challenge
The easiest way to tell is that you can get to all of the nuts with a deep socket on an 8". The 9" you can't get to the bottom nuts with the deep socket
It's an 8 inch..... And maverick75 is correct. The early 9 inch housings dont have the buldge, they're completely smooth like the 8 inch housings
Cool thanks, I'm sure it wont be a 9 as the car is completely standard. I did a small amount of research and am I right in also thinking that this is one of the later ones with stronger webbing on the front? Waffle shape instead of straight ribs, are there any mods I can do to strengthen it (around the front bearing which is the weak point???)
An 8" is more flat on the top and bottom of the housing...and the pinion is mounted a bit lower. Here is a pic of the early 9" (k-Code) rear end.
..so are there any mods that can be done to strengthen it at all around the weak spots? Would rather keep it than do a 9" conversion.
No, it's the carrier thats the weaker part (as opposed to a 9") The 28 spline 9's use the same axles as the 8's do.
Yes, they are stronger than some want to admit. What rear wheel HP do you think you will end up with?
Well I'd like to see 300NA, and depending on how it pulls maybe 1-200 of nitrous on a progressive controller (so not a big hit). I think the axle would be ok, a 9" would sap a lot more power so I'd rather kep this one and mod it when its out of the car whilst I've got the chance if there is anything that can be done! Might not even need it but I'd prefer to have it too strong than not strong enough.
