I found a posi carrier in a rear end that i pulled out of a car but i am having problems with changing the gears on it.

I know that the carrier is a series 2 because the gears that came on it were 2.73 (15-41). now here is the weird part.

I just changed the gears on my friends 97 camaro and his posi looks the same as mine does, as opposed the the open 3.42:1 carrier that i have.(the ring gear mounting flange is closer to the center of the carrier by .775" on the 3.42) but his rearend had a set of 4.10's and now houses a set of 373's yet his carrier looks the exact same as mine does.
As i figured when i tried the put the 3.42 gear (thin ring gear) it would have gigantic back lash because it is on the wrong carrier. but when i put my buddies old 410 ring gear(thick ring gear) on the posi carrier it lined up with the 342 on its carrier(if you can follow this that is amazing)

my question becomes if the 410's fit on this posi (or any thick gear) would a set of 3.73's out of a L69 fit on my carrier as well because that is what we did for my friends 97 camaro, we used a set out of a smashed L69, switched the gear on to his carrier and used the shims out of the l69 rearend and the backlash lined up(.008") and has been running fine for a couple weeks now.

If any one understands this please help, because 2.73's are too highway for me

thank you
Bradford

 

the 3.42:1 gears are out of a 95 camaro
the 2.73:1 gears are out of a 91 z28 (i believe)
the posi carrier for the 2.73:1 is an auburn (did those come stock???)
the 3.42 gear is a thin gear as well as the 2.73 gears the 410 ring gear i have is thick, so were the 373 in my buddies car

i thought the carrier were 308 and lower or 308 and higher
but y would the 342's and 373's be different thicknesses

please help i am lost

 

No, they would not.

The ones that came in the L69 rear are the thin kind, i.e. the carrier they came on (the L69 OE one) is the correct one for 3 series gears. So those gears will behave the same on a 2 series carrier as the 3.42s you describe.

However, you could use a ring gear spacer, and then they would fit. Personally I despise using the thicker "work around" gears or a spacer, but given the choice, I'd put a spacer in a long time before I'd buy weird gears that won't fit a correctly assembled rear end.

Yes, Auburn supplied GM the posi they used in these cars. It is the same as the cheap Auburn you can buy from other suppliers with the Auburn label. It is not the same as the expensive Auburn "Pro Posi".

The division is 3.08 and lower, or 3.23 and higher.

Sounds like the rear that you got from the L69 car was actually swapped in from some other car, and someone had already stuck the 2-series 3.73 gears in it to make it right for the HO car.

 

so the 308 and lower gears have the thick ring gear and
the 323 and higher gears have the thin gear??

if that is the case why are the 273 gears i have thin as well as the 342 is this just some weird combo. the gears are both GM and so were the thick gear 373's

wow this is fun

 

The gears are about the same thickness when a 2-series gear is on a 2-series carrier, and a 3-series gear is on a 3-series carrier. It's the carrier flange that changes thickness in that case.

When you have 3-series gears on a 2-series carrier, you have thicker gears.

 

i looked for a spacer for months and was never able to find one for our rear ends,


i had similar problems, i got a 2 series carrier, and i just wound up getting a set of gears to fit it, i got mine cheap from the local shop, cuz they were a misorder