Axle ident. help needed!

[southernspeed]

I need to buy gears for my wife's '67 Camaro but don't recognise this axle. At first I assumed 12 blt car, but I'm not so sure, let alone what year or even era!

Any help quickly needed and appreciated!

 

[3 on the tree]

It WAS a coil spring rearend to start with. I believe that the GM A bodies (Chevelle, Cutlass, Skylark, GTO) used the same width axle as the Camaros. Don't know a web site to help, sorry. I would get 2 cover gaskets, 1 -10 bolt, and 1 -12 bolt. They were different, so that should narrow it down quite a bit. Also, GM used different housings/carriers for different ratios, so that has to be taken into account.

 

[southernspeed]

It's definatly a '12blt' as in 12 cover bolts but the cover is a smooth dome, I thought GM 12 blts had a ridge vertically in line with the ring gear. Maybe it's not even GM, I have no idea. The stamped number on the end of the half shafts (which are new) is 126 06. No numbering on the axle casing that I can see.

 

[southernspeed]

AMC MODEL 20
Used in 1976-and-later Jeep CJs, the Model 20 rearend is both strong and weak. An 8 3/4-inch-diameter ring gear provides strength; weaknesses are the housing itself and the axle-to-hub retaining method. Converting to one-piece axles or full-floaters gives this axle better stamina.

Actually it looks worryingly like this! but with link ears.

 

[onlychevy6]

how long have you had the car? It kinda looks like a newer GM rear end. However I forget what the old dana's looked like that the cuda's and others ran during that time frame.

 

[southernspeed]

Only had it a couple of weeks. The rear end has been rebuilt, it's also LSD but rebuild reciept gives no clue!

 

[smalltruckbigcid]

The center section kind of looks like a mid eighties G-body....
George

 

[Blue85]

I know what it is. That there is a REAR axle.

You're welcome.

 

[swedester]

70´s impala/fullsize axle with f-body tubes?

 

[Thunder]

It looks like a GM 12 bolt to me. Either out of a A body or G body
A bodys were earlier model Chevelle, Skylark, GTO, Cutlass

G body was late 70s to mid 80s? Malibu, monte carlo ECT.

They also used 12 bolts in most all year Camaros but I dont think they had the upper control arm bushing ears on the housings. i dont think it is out of a camaro or bird.

If it is an earlier A body housing There should be a date code stamped in the webbing of the diff housing. It will . Be something like this B 15 8 which decodes as Feb 15 1968. Letter =Month number=day last digit is the year of manufacture.
I don t know how the G body's were coded.

 

[dyeager535]

A/G-body axles were the same as the trucks, minus the coil springs, either 7.5" (almost universal) or 8.5". (super rare, 442/GN only)

A-body is '78-81, G-body is '82-'88. Yes, body styles changed in '81, but the body designation did not.

As mentioned, there is an earlier A-body, totally different animal though.

If the axle doesn't have the telltale triangle casting ears of the 8.5" or the castings fangs of the 7.5", it wasn't from a 78-88 A/G-body, nor any late 70's-90's GM, because all the RWD cars (Caprice, Impala, Cadillac, etc) used those two axles. (up until some point with the Camaro rears, but that's another story)

 

[4X4HIGH]

Car and truck 12 bolts are completely different and nothing interchanges between them

 

[dyeager535]

Obviously it was from a car (if GM and after what, '72?) as it had coil springs.

Doesn't look like anything even remotely modern if it's GM, none of the axles I've seen from GM have that "lip" forward of the gasket mating surface. All the '70's+ axles from GM I am aware of, the gasket mating surface is the largest diameter portion of the housing.

I've never played with the 12 bolts though, so that's the only one I can't be certain of based on that "lip".

 

[southernspeed]

Yeah it's a strange one. It's not like any 12 bolt I've seen. I'm really stumped on this one!

 

[Tire]

Ah how the mighty have fallen only took one "car" question to get you all....
I can't help either, I just wanted to gloat.

 

[sweetk30]

well its a gm style coil link center. and has welded tubes. and new prob custom made axles. and its not a regular style gm 10 bolt or 12 bolt like we are all use to seeing.

i would ask someone like randys ring and pinion. and if need be give them a pic in the email or link to this.

more info: my long time gm tech buddy said 85-90% sure std car 12 bolt with some kind of diffrent odd ball cover on it.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Get a pic from directly behind the axle looking at the diff cover.

 

[mrk5]

Maybe this would help.

bolt Axle Usage
12-bolt axles were installed on all SS350's (with the exception of 1969 SS350's with Powerglide transmissions, see note below), all SS396's, and all Z28's.
In addition, 12-bolt axles were installed on the following cars:

1967-68 L30/M20 cars from Feb 1967 through the end of the 1968 model year.
1969 cars with the LM1 engine. The 12 bolt axle was used with all manual transmissions and almost all automatic transmissions (a limited number of LM1 automatics have 10 bolt axles).
Some 1969 cars with the L65 engine (which replaced the LM1 engine in January 69). Most L65 axles were 10 bolts, but some, especially near the start of L65 production, were 12 bolts.
All models with the 1969 JL8 factory 4-wheel disc brake option.
Most 1967 6-cylinder and 327 cars that were ordered with both positraction and axle ratios not commonly ordered in 10-bolt axle applications (2.73 and 3.55). The 2.73 ratio with positraction appears to have been only available with a 12-bolt axle in 1967, presumedly to reduce inventory. There is limited data on the 3.55 ratio axles, but it shows a mix of 10- and 12-bolt axle usage. (The more commonly ordered 3.08 axle with positraction was a 10-bolt unit.)
Note: GM documentation indicates that 1969 SS350s and LM1s with automatic transmissions received a 10-bolt rear axle. So far only SS350 cars with Powerglides have been observed to consistently have 10 bolt axles. Please contact us if you have a 1969 car with this drivetrain.

 

[mrk5]

Found this too:

There were three axle center section casting numbers used for 67-69 Camaros (and all three were also used in Novas). Most cars received either the 10-bolt 3894859 housing or 12-bolt 3894860 housing. Later 69 (after 08A) cars could have received the 12-bolt 3969341 housing. Most of these later axles (10 or 12 bolt) would have also been stamped with the 1970 style three digit application code (e.g. CBT instead of just BT).

Page is here: http://www.camaros.org/drivetrain.shtml Scroll down to about the middle for the axle stuff.

 

[southernspeed]

Well it would seem it is an AMC M20 out of a CJ7 but I've not seen them with coil sprung locating 'ears' like that so I'm guessing it's a late one used before they went to Dana 35s?
We've got a rod run this weekend, if no one can say for sure there I'll pull the cover off and see what part numbers are on the gears if any. I haven't done that thus far because I don't have any LSD additive yet!
Thanks for all your suggestions!