Quote:
Originally Posted by vicgto
ol Pinion head, you mention 71 & 72 Cutlasses and Skylarks but what about Chevelles, didn't they use 8.5 rear ends in these years?
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Have yet to run across a factory installed 8.5 A-body rear in a '71 or '72 Malibu, Chevelle, MonteCarlo or ElCamino. From extensive bone-yarding, dragging in partscars, & pulling r/e cores, these lower horse Chevy models continued to receive 8.2 Chevy 10 bolts.
Once the 4 bbl 350 Chevy engine was optioned, a single track 12 bolt Chevy rear was standard. Many years ago, I cked a '72 ElCaminio in a monstrous S Dallas pick-n-pull. It had an 8.5 A-body in it along with a slightly shortened driveshaft (which had been cut down) in the bed. I grabbed both. That was in a Fremont CA built ElCo. Ever since I've cked multiple dozens of late built 72 ElCo's & Malibus when I could still find them intact. Before that moment, I'd easily pulled a dozen 12 bolt cores out '72 ElCo's.
72 production.... GM shifted a lot of ElCamino production to the Fremont assembly plant for the 1972 models. The Fremont GM Assembly plant still built a wide range of GM division A-bodies in '72. Mention that as have also noted, the production of '72 Pontiac A-bodies out of Fremont was very low compared to '71 production. Could some very late built Chevy A bodies or variants received a same ratio (2.73) Buick or Olds built 8.5 A-body rear due to supply on hand isues near the model end of year? The 73's model A-body's would not be able to use them. It would have taken a specific driveshaft. One that was slightly shorter & the driveshaft & the trans yoke was built with 3R ujoint features. That would be no issue if the fitted driveshafts were made in house. If such a rearend usage was factory installed, i would also think there would have been a technical service bulletin issued noting it.