As of right now I have a perfect 9 bolt. No leaks all powercoated and perfect working 89 and up PBR brakes with Baer Rotors. BUT the posi is shot. Do I splurge and purchase and new posi from 9bolt.com and have somebody put it in, or find a 10 bolt and try to clean that up and convert the brakes and take a chance if the posi is good or not?

 

I say rebuild it.
I was in australia last week, getting part numbers,and dealers for the posi's, gears, and LSD LUBE. The posi were easy to get, but I held off, waiting for mine to crap. Also I am not too sure about MILES's business. I have tried to contact him to see if he had parts availble in the states. NO REPLY.
I will be in the states for the next month, but after that I may get into digging this stuff up. The 9 bolt diffs are in most everything in Australia
shawn

 

If the car is not raced, then not having posi isn't a big deal -- but if you're set on fixing it, the repair can be expensive.
Unless you're a "purist" in wanting to keep the car completely stock, the decision of what to do depends on the price of parts and labor to rebuild the 9-bolt. In my case I couldn't find a reasonably-priced mechanic to do the rear rebuild and setup and wasted $700 trying to have a friend do it. Buying the parts and having the rear setup might cost $500-800. It is far cheaper to buy a complete rear to exchange instead of going through the hassle of fixing the non-working-posi in your differential. I was able to locate three complete disk brake posi rears for about $125 each in great condition. All three have PBR and 12-inch rotors, two of them are 4th Gen and yes I like the 1.5-inches extension of 3rd Gen wheels on each side. Rather than spend lots of money to fix an old rear, I'd opt to invest a couple thousand in a 12-bolt or 9-inch -- at least then you know it won't break and parts will be readily available in the future.

 

My posi is shot also. I don't really want to tackle it, but am looking for another for a spare.

 

I don't think I've ever heard of someone going from a 9-bolt to a 10-bolt, especially with a 383. The parts for the 9-bolt are expensive, and Miles seems to have faded away, but are you sure that you want a 10-bolt?

 

Thought hard about this same question myself since my 9 bolt posi was basically dead. To me, it just wasn't worth throwing money into the 9 bolt. Parts are expensive and scarce and I don't have the same faith in their strength that others do. I picked up a Dana 44 but the backup plan was a 10 bolt.

 

If you don't want that Dana 44, I'll be happy to take it off your hands! PM me.

 

Depending on how much power you're making it might be time to bite the bullet so to speak and start saving up for an aftermarket rear like a 12 bolt or something. You can only expect so much out of stock parts, even freshly rebuilt. I also have a 9 bolt with a posi on the way out and I'm not really considering getting it rebuilt. Parts are just too expensive for that rearend. I've decided to go to a 10 bolt but my situation is probably different than yours (this is a track car and I want to run a minispool and I dont care if I blow up a bunch of 10bolts, they're cheap).

 

i just spent alot of money on puttin a new 3 seriies carrier in with 3.27 gears in my car

120 for the install kit, 70 for the gears, 70 for the carrier, plus installation costs since i didnt want to do that on my own

that carrier was bought over a year ago and i havent seen many aroudn for sale... from ebay to the classifieds

whenever it goes, i will go 10bolt from a 4th gen so i can ZR1 wheels