[MetalHead175]

Hello all, I am finally getting around to finishing my 70 bird this summer and had a quick question. I've googled this and searched on the forum and ended up with no definitive answer. Can I use the low mile axles out of my 8.2 for the 8.5 rear I'm building for it? If so it'll save me $250 since I won't have to buy the moser axles. Thank you in advance!

[Half-Inch Stud]

Splines same, lenght can be same. BUT noooo, axle bearings are wrong.
8.2 has sealed retained bearing.
8.5 Type "O" same as 8.2
8.5 axle Corporate Chevy has inner bearing Race, so Retain in Diff with C-Clip.

['ol Pinion head]

There are many different 8.2 rears. Base 70 1/2 Firebirds & 350 Esprits came with 8.2 Chevy c-clip 10 bolts. The Chevy 8.2 c-clip axles should slide right in a 28spline 8.5 side gear. They're not the strongest axle though.

Instead of building off a few c-clip axle 8.5 housings, I've built several 8.5 F-body rears off the '71-72 8.5 A-body housing. End up with bolt-in tapered bearing axles. In my experience, even stock '71-72 8.5 A-body axles are stronger than the early c-clip versions. Worked out well on one of the hsgs as one A-body rear came out of the top of a core pile where another rear had been dropped on one of the cast upper control arm mounts & cracked it. Ended up grinding both upper perches off, then stripped the lwr arm mounts off & jig welded reinforced multileaf sprimg brackets on.

[MetalHead175]

Thank you for the replies. If they are the c-clip axles then that would be good. They won't be in there long, just long enough to get the thing driveable and to save a couple bucks up front. I will upgrade to different axles as the time goes on. I have a ford 9 inch and a 12 bolt in the yard that I could also work with, but the 8.5 F-body rear is going in for now.

[sdbob]

Pinion head could later A body housings workin a 70 up F? What about 1st gen F what will swap from the 8.5 era? Thanks.