About a year ago I was fortunate enough to purchase a rear disk brake setup with posi off ebay for $150.00 plus 100 shipping. I felt this was too good to pass up so i jumped on it. I knew that the rear end was minus one rear brake caliper for the driver side, but other than that it was complete.

Here goes the questions :

I am planning on building this rear end to fit my 92 camaro RS, and hold the torque and power that i have in my car. I realize it will not be totally bulletproof, but i twill be a substancial upgrade. The rear needs everything in my opinion.

1.) Rear Axles. I want to replace the rear axles with some that are stronger and will hold up to abuse. I dont like the existing ones as i feel that they are too weak for my application and will twist/snap. What type of axles do you guys recommend?

2.) Rear brakes. I was considering to purchase a 400 dollar setup from wilwood to replace the factory disk stuff. I want to have this rear end be perfect for the most part so that is the major reason why. I know i can go stock, but it wont look / work as good.

3.) Posi Unit. I am replacing the factory posi unit with another one simply agian for strength issues. I feel that It will not hold up to my motor. What type of rear posi unit do you all recommend / have had experience with?

4.) rear Gears. I am planning on putting a set of 3.73:1 gears in this rear, along with the posi unit. I feel this will give me both launchability and driveability on the interstate. what type of gears do you all recommend / have had experience with.

5.) Suspension. I have a considerable list of things that I want to purchase from SPOHN. These include subframe braces, Panhard, Torsion, and everything else he offers for the car The car is lowered with Jamex Springs right now and I get hella wheel hop, so i know i have some pinion angle issues to correct.

6.) brake porportioning vavle. Since this rear end is off a 87, and my RS is a drum 6cyl rear, I should buy a porportioning valve for an 87 and that should set me up for proper porportioning correct? Again this is my first drum to disk conversion so im going to need some guidence if possible.

7.) Rear End Cover. Do the Expensive Aluminum ones really do that much better than the stock ones? are they worth the money other than for looks?

Any and all input on this matter is greatly appreciated. I have been wanting to do this build up for a while and now that i am working a second job ill have the $ to do it!
Thanks for your help and comments in advance.

-Steve

 

You might check the May issue of Chevy High Performance. They do a 10-bolt build up: axels, posi, gears, and alum diff cover.

JamesC

 

1. The rear brakes can be made to look good for a couple hundred and function just as well as some Wildwoods. If you were going to do fronts and rears for some serious competition braking power, then I could see you spending that much. But in reality most of the braking is done in the front of the system, so it makes sense to upgrade that before the rears. A nice set of drilled/slotted rotors from I-rotors.com will run you around 100 or so and with some freshened up PBR calipers, its very easy. All you will need to make the bigger rotors/calipers work on your rear is prolly just backing plates and maybe brake lines. I am in the process of preping a 87 3.27 disc rear for use on my 89, Swapping the 89 PBR brakes to this rear.

2. Posi unit replacing is a good idea, but can be pricey and I don't know that the aftermarket is there for 9-bolts.

3. Rear gears are going to be a little tricky because there are only 3 factory gears for the 9 bolt rear. 2.77 3.27 and 3.45. There is an aftermarket ring and pinion out there for 3.70 made just for the 9-bolt rear, but at 400+ dollars, you might as well get a 10 bolt if lower gears is a must for your application.

4. As far as prob valves go, you would need one for your year car, not the year the rearend came out of. You would need one for a 4 wdb car from your year. But you might as well get an adjustable prop valve to give the rear brakes some more stopping power. There is a tech article about that mod in the tech section

5. And as far as rearend covers, as far as I know now, dont hold me to it, someone might have come out with one now, but no one yet manufactures an aftermarket rear cover for the 9-bolt rear. Sucks, but there have been several lenghty posts about this, and alot of talk, but at the said price of around 220 dollars, it might not be necessary unless you are at the track alot or making tons of power.

Hope that helps. I'm going through alot of this myself right now.

Will

 

Hey, Will,

I assume you purchased your 9-bolt backing plates elsewhere as I never heard from you. Good luck on the build up.

JamesC

 

Negative, never purchased em. I was going to reuse the ones on my stock rear. Do you still have them? money has been tight and GM parts direct offers only one side but very cheap, something like 20 some off dollars for the one, suck though because the other side is no longer available. Anwyays, let me know, sorry I never got back to you, I just couldn't swing the 80 bucks or whatever for em right then

Will

 

See the classifieds for the backing plates.

JamesC