My 454SS's, now that's alot of S's.

[Mercedes mechanic]

With the BBC's, I'd say stick with the 14 bolt. The 454 SS's are the only GMT400's that came with that rear end. Highly sought after, & fairly rare. They'll take a ton of horsepower & a mountain of abuse. The 10 bolts in these trucks are a weak link, especially with any kind of horsepower/torque in front of 'em. Outer bearing issues, tiny axle shafts, & the factory gov-lok posi's are poop.

I think I might just get a new ring and pinion set.


Pictures in a second.

 

[Mercedes mechanic]

As you can see the underside is pretty dirty, also the transmission wiring is a mess. So it will be onto that soon.

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[DRAGGIN95]

With the BBC's, I'd say stick with the 14 bolt. The 454 SS's are the only GMT400's that came with that rear end. Highly sought after, & fairly rare. They'll take a ton of horsepower & a mountain of abuse. The 10 bolts in these trucks are a weak link, especially with any kind of horsepower/torque in front of 'em. Outer bearing issues, tiny axle shafts, & the factory gov-lok posi's are poop.
I had 3.55's behind my BBC stick shift car. Didn't really turn on till 30 mph. Couldn't drive in 4th at that speed. It would chug against the cam. 3.73's would have been better for around town, & I probably would have gotten better city mileage, because I had to horse it to get any kind of street performance. But after 30mph? Oh man! Second gear pull was amazing! The top-end charge was like a freight train! Highway cruising was O.K. Fairly decent mileage, for a lumpy cammed carb engine, & no overdrive. The 4 spd auto with overdrive, and fuel injection will get you better than the 12MPG that I was getting. And that's based on Imperial gallons. 20% larger than the American measurement for a gallon.

Word, I wish I had one of those 14 bolt 5 lug rear end's in my truck, with the power I am making I figure my 10 bolt will self destruct in time!

 

[FastOrange]

Word, I wish I had one of those 14 bolt 5 lug rear end's in my truck, with the power I am making I figure my 10 bolt will self destruct in time!

for some odd reason my 10 bolt is living, but i think cause its open diff, pretty sure G80 would have bombed by now.

 

[sewlow]

Here ya go!

http://www.ringpinion.com/DiffWizard.aspx

 

[Mercedes mechanic]

Here ya go!

http://www.ringpinion.com/DiffWizard.aspx

Thank you, more pic's in a few.

 

[Mercedes mechanic]

The guys at Chevy laughed when I told them this starter worked fine. I just didnt like the way the solenoid looked. But onto pic's.

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More in a minute.

 

[Mercedes mechanic]

More.

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[SixSpeedSS]

With the BBC's, I'd say stick with the 14 bolt. The 454 SS's are the only GMT400's that came with that rear end. Highly sought after, & fairly rare. They'll take a ton of horsepower & a mountain of abuse. The 10 bolts in these trucks are a weak link, especially with any kind of horsepower/torque in front of 'em. Outer bearing issues, tiny axle shafts, & the factory gov-lok posi's are poop.
I had 3.55's behind my BBC stick shift car. Didn't really turn on till 30 mph. Couldn't drive in 4th at that speed. It would chug against the cam. 3.73's would have been better for around town, & I probably would have gotten better city mileage, because I had to horse it to get any kind of street performance. But after 30mph? Oh man! Second gear pull was amazing! The top-end charge was like a freight train! Highway cruising was O.K. Fairly decent mileage, for a lumpy cammed carb engine, & no overdrive. The 4 spd auto with overdrive, and fuel injection will get you better than the 12MPG that I was getting. And that's based on Imperial gallons. 20% larger than the American measurement for a gallon.

Agreed. My 14 bolt has been thru some serious abuse over the years. In 2007 before I left for the Power Tour, I decided to pull the rear diff cover off and change the fluid (couldn't remember ever doing it all these years). Anyway there was pieces of the posi unit laying in the bottom of the housing. Keep in mind the stock rearend was launched at 4-5000 rpm on drag radials (with a stick no less) and the OEM posi/3.73s just kept ticking. When I found a piece of the ratcheting mechanism of the posi in the bottom of the housing, I decided it was time for a gear swap and a new Eaton diff. The reason I went with the 4.56s was more to get my cruise rpm up in 6th gear, not so much for launching. It helped the launch, but lost horsepower at the wheels (dyno guy said that the deeper gears somehow would 'trick' the dyno and show smaller HP/TQ numbers vs the 3.73s). It was down 3 horsepower, but also down 17 ft lbs in TQ. Anyway I picked up 4 tenths of a second at the track with no other changes. I have launched at 5500 rpm with no wheelspin on drag radials and the rear end has held up fine. Can't say the same for the clutch. Since the switch, I regularly get 17 mpg (highway) and averaged 14.3 mpg for the entire Power Tour (Long Hauled at 2800 miles in 8 days). This included all drag racing (two tracks), street racing, running a sustained 120-130 mph between Peoria IL and Springfield IL, sitting in Chicago traffic for hours, etc, etc. I could only muster 14 mpg on the highway with the 3.73s and 6th gear on the power tour in 2003. My average was something like 11 mpg then).

That all said, I had a 1990 K1500 ECLB and rebuilt the rear end twice. Used high quality parts (non OEM) and it still came apart. That truck really had no power (stock but with dual exhaust), and was rarely used to tow with. Those 8.5" 1/2 ton rears are weak at best. My father has a shop and has rebuilt a ton of GM 8.5" 10 bolt truck rears. He usually keeps all parts in stock because he does so many. My 454SS's 9.5" 14 bolt was the first 14 bolt he had done in many years - he used to take care of a fleet of uniform rental trucks with 14 bolt 10.5" and they tore up carrier bearings pretty often, but never a diff failure or gearset failure in several million miles (combined of all trucks). This was attributed to excessive weight that these trucks carried when all of the dirty laundry/rages/carpets/etc was being brought back.

Word, I wish I had one of those 14 bolt 5 lug rear end's in my truck, with the power I am making I figure my 10 bolt will self destruct in time!

for some odd reason my 10 bolt is living, but i think cause its open diff, pretty sure G80 would have bombed by now.

This is why when I was looking for another GMT400 4x4, I wanted a 2500 series minimum. I didn't want a 7004R/4L60E and I didn't want a 8.5" 10 bolt.

 

[Mercedes mechanic]

Transmission and under cab work today.


More to come.