Well,

I've finally gotten the car through emissions and now that its legal and all bugs are worked out, I want to freshen up the rear end. It has an open 2:73 with 153,000 miles on it. I went from a q-jet 305 to a worked 383. I will not drag the car, I only want posi because it is difficult to pull away from any type of a stop or even anything below 10MPH without breaking the tire loose. I don't want to look like a **** doing un-intended burnouts from a stoplight, but it is difficult with the motor/trans/convertor combo to gently pull away without the open rear breaking loose. I don't think I have a need to be over a 3:42 as the motor torques along well with the 273, but I'm looking for a good set up that will take street abuse. Any thoughts?

 

You will need a EATON Limited Slip carrier, good brand of 3:42 gears (not Richmond) and rebuild kit. I hope you have 28 slpline axle shafts or that is going to be a added expense.
Now with that said this is not a DIY type job even for a advanced gearhead. So all told with parts & labor you are looking at about $800 or more. Just remember the 10-bolt will NOT take a lot of abuse

 

The Eaton LSD is a good unit, but I'd go with a Trutrac over the Eaton.

What cam and converter are you running? These are important details to consider when choosing rear gears.

 

TGO has a bunch of people selling Carriers and Gears right now.

your 10 bolt will hold up fine to street abuse(which im assuming is just some burnouts or light to light races), you already said your not going to Drag it, so i take it your not going to be throwing slicks on the car and really making it hook(which is the main reason people blow apart rears, too much traction can be a bad thing sometimes)

everything can be done in your driveway if you know what your doing and have the proper tools, its not hard, same as working on anything with a car, just gotta know what your doing and before you dig in

 

are you running on a tight budget and willing to use old parts? just about every s-10 blazer came with a limited slip and 3.73 gears, and some came with 3.42 if you were looking to go the recycled route

 

OOhhh so he could use a rear out of a s10 blazer? What years...I may wanna go this route! I have 3.42's...I want 372's or even 4.10's. Thinkin 4.10's but if 3.73's can be had dirt cheap I may just go that route. Would they be a direct swap? Or just can be MADE to work?

 

I am running a hughes 3000 converter and I will need to get my build sheets to look at cam specs. I am running on the edge of not having much vacuum for brakes if this tells you the type of cam I am running. That is cool you can use those rears from blazers. I haven't considered that before. I already budgeted a fair amount to cover the rear work. I figured between 800-1000 to get it done right. Black is right, I have done one before with a friend and it was tough and I am not comfortable doing it my own car.

To follow up on blacks comment. I was leaning towords eaton. I do not know how many spline axle I have, I will check sooner than. Has anyone eliminated the 10-bolt and gone a completely different route? I am curious to see what is available. I don't want to put money into something that could be mediocre at best when I could spend a little more and get more reliability.

 

you can use a ford 9", just need to have the mounts moved for a thirdgen,

you can get a 9 bolt from a thirdgen that came with one but parts are harder to find for it, that will bolt right up

you can use a 12 bolt from a 4th gen, but you would need new wheels because 3rd gen wheels wont tuck unless the rear is shortened. that will bolt right up

and as said above the S10/Blazer rears will work too

but like i said before, unless your going to be really beating the crap out of your car, your 10 bolt will hold fine with just switching to a posi carrier with lower gearing, take a look at Micro's sig, he's still using a 10 bolt, im sure he's wanting a bullet proof rear, but his 10 is holding for now.....

you can also get better Axles pretty cheap over on TGO if need be

if your really worried about something being Mediocre , then you should save up 2 or 3k and buy a built rear from Summit or Jegs, atleast you would have a warranty with it

 

I am willing to go that route if necessary. Like previously stated, there will be no slicks on the car and I know with street tires they'll break loose before the rear will. I have put so much time, energy, and money into the car I would hate for a rear with 153K miles on it to go and mess up a body/paint/or exhaust job. I just want the right rear for the application. I feel like I already went overboard on the motor/trans/ etc and I don't want to skimp on the final part of the car resto.

 

A bolt in 9", 12 bolt, or Dana 60 from Moser or Strange Engineering is the way to go, but you'll be over $2,000 without brakes or a drive shaft.

However, I'd probably just beef up the stock 10 bolt. A set of upgraded 28 spline shafts, C clip eliminators, Detroit Trutrac, girdled support cover, and a good set of gears should be more than enough for what you need.