Does my 72 Nova have one of those good strong 8.5" 10-bolt rear ends. I read some article where they are as strong as 12-bolt units but only if they have the 8.5" ring gear with the 11/16" ring gear bolt heads. I guess the only way to find out is to remove the cover right?

Sorry, if stock, yours will have the old lightweight cruncher in it..

The 10 bolt is strong, but not as strong as a 12 bolt. You will find that as the HP builds and you start to hook the car up that the axle housing will rotate off the spring perches. You can prevent this from happening by installing "U" bolts over the axle tubes and doing away with the stock mounting method.

Vince

We would add some flat steel material from the inside edge of the spring perches .... over the axle tube to the other side of the perch. This would keep the perches from curling up then allow the axle rotate / rock forward - back wards.

just a thought

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The 8.5" and 8.2" can be identified without removing the covers. The housing itself has a slightly different shape. If you have an 8.5" there should be two little "ears" sticking down on each side of the center section.

Yes, a properly built 8.5" is VERY strong. They are very close to a 12 bolt built the same way. Very little difference as far as strength.

Depending on how much power you are making or how fast you are trying to go there are things that can/need to be done if you want it to live. Even 8.2" 10 bolts can take more than most give then credit for. I know of one that has been low 11's for quite a while in a 3400lbd Camaro. It finally let go (broke a gear) when he dipped into the 10's. I am not saying you should attempt to do that since the 8.2" is quite a bit weaker (they both have te same axle spline). The gear in the 8.2" is the weak link.

Depends a lot on shock loading and pinion crush sleeve flex.

Use a solid sleeve and

Take up the slack in the gears before launching. Manual trans power shifting spells trouble with good traction.

Follow this link for some good info on Nova diffs.

And yes, the 8.5" is nearly as strong as a 12 bolt.

http://novaresource.org/axle.htm

Sometimes the axle tubes will spin in the center housing, too. Get them welded if you plan to use it hard.

I pulled a open 3:08 8.5 rear end out of a 74 Nova and stuck it in my 67 Camaro. So a few of them had 8.5's. I swapped in a limited slip from a 86 caprice cop car with no problem for a cheap limited slip rear. the 3:08 kind of stink though.

'71 was the last year of the 8.2" rear in the Novas. They went to the 8.5" unit in '72. SS's had multileaf springs, but the rest got monoleafs. In '73, they all got multi's.