Fire!!! 8 3/4 rearend

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Agent_Orange

Agent_Orange

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I have a 8.75 rear end that came out of a car that was in a house fire. The housing is fine. I am going to get new axles, but was wondering what needs to be replaced in the pumpkin. It has a 3.23 sure grip which I wouldn't mind keeping.
 
Before you put any money in that thing, have to sonic/mag tested.
 
It all depends on how hot it got I guess, at the very least you will want to pull the diff apart and inspect and replace the axle seals and the pinion seal.

If you are saying the diff was in the car that was in the house fire it probably shielded it quite a bit (heat rises). Although it got warm for sure. You still want to replace the rubber pieces.
 
A housing that may have been heated to 1,200 degrees then rapidly cooled with a fire hose is something that i would be very hesitant to use.
 
1968FormulaS340 said:
A housing that may have been heated to 1,200 degrees then rapidly cooled with a fire hose is something that i would be very hesitant to use.
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IF it was in the car at floor level, it may not have reached that degree.

I served as a Firefighter for 15 years and crawled into many houses that were blazing, if you stay close to the floor it's not as bad as you might think.

I would still look it over real well before using it though.
 
Any obvious damage to the housing?
Like melted seals, no oil, crispy stuff
hanging off it, blue and rusty.
How much damage/heat do you think
it was subjected to?
 
you would have never guessed the car was in a house fire if you weren't told so. the rear end looked better than a lot of units pulled from junk yards. That being said, I am confident in the housing, I am going to get new axles and bearings, then I should put new seals. Are there a difference in seals? any particular brand I should look into? Also, I thought I read somewhere where Green axle bearings are only good for the strip. The future of this car is more of a turning machine. With that being said, does that change the axles and bearings I choose? Note - the car is currently a mild 318, I do have a 340 in the garage but that mill wont be going in for a couple years.
 
Why new axles and bearings? Is it just for bolt pattern?

Regarding the axle seals, if the rear is original to the car just go to NAPA and tell em you want axle seals for that particular car/year.

IMO if you are planning on road course or something of that nature, I'd probably stick with the OEM roller bearings, but that's just me.
 
Agent_Orange said:
you would have never guessed the car was in a house fire if you weren't told so. the rear end looked better than a lot of units pulled from junk yards. That being said, I am confident in the housing, I am going to get new axles and bearings, then I should put new seals. Are there a difference in seals? any particular brand I should look into? Also, I thought I read somewhere where Green axle bearings are only good for the strip. The future of this car is more of a turning machine. With that being said, does that change the axles and bearings I choose? Note - the car is currently a mild 318, I do have a 340 in the garage but that mill wont be going in for a couple years.
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unless you need to change the bolt pattern why would you bother with new axles? good chances are the car didn't get hot enough to warp anything on the housing
 
That center section is gonna be junk! I'll relieve you of your junk and even pay shipping for it to be sent to me! :finga: LOL I might even trade you a perfectly good 3.23 open rear for it!!
 
Are you going to stay with small bolt axels? If you are, and need a set, let me know.....I accidently bought an extra set.LOL
 
Lots of good responses. IMO if the seals are not heat damaged the rest of it is probably good to go. I would not use the green bearings. The oem set up was semi-floating, actually a real good design.
I don't understand why so many folks think they need to switch to the green bearings. It is so easy to set up the factory bearings.
 
femtnmax said:
Lots of good responses. IMO if the seals are not heat damaged the rest of it is probably good to go. I would not use the green bearings. The oem set up was semi-floating, actually a real good design.
I don't understand why so many folks think they need to switch to the green bearings. It is so easy to set up the factory bearings.
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Most switch due to the brake setup they want to run required the change.
 
How about some pictures?
If the paint isn't burned off or the seals look like crispy critters, the diff should be good as is.
I would change all of the rubber parts as a matter of course though, as well as the brakes etc.
 
Sounds like just change seals,add axles and roll,very unlikely hard parts and SG suffered any damage being still in car...now if it had tires on it at the time and they burned up then that would constitute finding another one....
 
1970Duster said:
Most switch due to the brake setup they want to run required the change.
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Dr. Diff's 10.7 and 11.7 rear disks can be used with the stock tapered bearings. Some of the other offerings are a little cheaper, but not enough to pay for changing the bearings.
 
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