69 Lemans rear axle question?
 

I was in the process of disassembling the rear axle for my 350 H.O. Lemans so JD race can work their magic on the Posi unit and when I pulled the bolts for the bearing caps I was surprised to see that they are copper.... is that normal?
I have never taken one apart that hasn't previously been messed with so I don't know and figured someone on here would.... I am assuming these are a one time use bolt as well?

thanks

H.O.

That has to be a plating of some sort. I don't think solid copper would torque past 30 ft/lbs. Does a magnet stick to them?

I am not sure but I will check when I get home, they seem heavy, like they are not just steel but, maybe that's just in my head after seeing the color of them... I would have to agree with you about them not getting to proper torque specs being copper, that's what confused me because they were definitely torqued.

Mine were the same on my 69 LeMans. I reused them and they torqued back in just fine. I couldn’t find any data that supported having to replace vs reuse.


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FWIW, I've had many of the 8.2 rear axles apart and haven't seen plated bolts such as those. I have however have re-used the cap bolts over when changing ratios etc. without any problems. When those differentials break it's not the bolts that fail, about anything else but the bolts fails, housings, carriers, gears etc. the bolts aren't the weak link normally.

I took dataway's suggestion and put a magnet to them and he's right it must be some kind of plating on them as the magnet grabs it solid..... I guess I don't know what that plating would be unless it's a this layer of copper to keep them from seizing but I wouldn't think GM would take the time or spend the money when I would think there were brush on or spray on antiseize products available to them.... I guess it really doesn't matter I was just surprised to see them shiny copper looking like that

Pontiac sourced copper plated bolts for a good percentage of their nodular 8.2 10 bolt rears. Nearly all factory roundport engine head bolts had a thin copper plating on them as well.

Not unusual to find Copper washed hardware in applications where they can seize or rust.
That would be unlikely to happen here so perhaps it was to aid somehow in torquing??

I have a nodular rear that had the same copper color bolts.

I was hoping you would reply to this with some insight thank you
It definitely is a nodular rear :D

ok I have yet another question for you guys, I noticed as I was starting to clean up the axle housing that the tops of both bushing ears had a redish pink swash of paint on them.... I am assuming this is marked at some point during assembly but, what does it mean?