I am building a 68 camaro ---can be seen under project Journals as curtis thornton 68 camaro. But any way I have run the numbers (PA) on the rear end and the chevy by numbers book states that my rear end came out of a 68 chevy2. I have no problem with that except I was wondering if the rear ends are the exact same lenth. My rear end measures 59 inches. It also states that the letters PA means it is a 304 gear. Is there any way to look at the gear and by the numbers on the gear figure out what ratio it is------because some where down in time the original gear could have been changed.
I also have a rear end out of a 78 eight trans-am that has disc brakes on it and it looks like the disc brake set up will bolt right on to my axile housing ---does anyone have any info on these topics. This rear end measures 60 inches

68 Camaro and 68 Nova rear ends interchange ... bolt for bolt.

__________________
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I know they will bolt up bolt for bolt-----but are they the same lenth. If they are the same lenth-----then why is it that the back spacing different on a nova and camaro rim

If the backspacing IS different, Id hafta guess itd probably be due to the difference in the fenderwells

The '68 ChevyII/Nova and '68 Camaro rear ends are identical in every way.

The difference in backspacing is due to different wheel widths. 6" wheels had more backspacing than 5" ones.

Don't trust the external stamped code to tell you what gears are in a 40-year-old rear end, unless you know absolutley for sure it's unmolested. Either do the old count-the-turns trick or pop the cover and find the tooth counts stamped on the outside edge of the ring gear. There will be four sets of numbers, each of which will have one or two digits. Two of those sets are the date of manufacture code, and the other two will be the tooth counts of the ring and pinion gears. For example: if the ring gear is stamped 9 67 12 37, that would indicate it was made in September of 1967, and the gear ratio was 37:12, or 3.08:1. The date code and ratio numbers may be in the opposite order, but you'll see what I mean.

I pulled the cover off and looked and the numbers on the gear indicates that it is a 308 ---and after intensive research I verified that the rearends in a 68 nova and camaro are almost identical. SO now I need to change the gears and put either mini spool or a pos unit --thanks for the help

Before I spent alot of money setting up the camaro rear I would use your 78 Pontiac disc brake rear. You would use more backspacing but whats an inch. A disc brake conversion kit for the camaro rear is around $600.

thanks for commenting, I have give it a lot of thought and after measuring I beleive the disc brake set up off the 78 tans am will bolt right on to my 68 Camaro rearend. I want know for sure untill I pull everthing apart and check it out. I plan on doing it next week around thursday. If you have any advice or if any one out there has tried this send me some thoughts on it.

This depends on what you are going to do with the car. You say mini-spool or posi like you are going to the dragstrip with it. If so, use the late model rear end, it is 8.5" over the 8.2" in the '68 rear end. You will be miles ahead using the stronger rear end for dragging. If you're just banging on it for fun, you can get away with the original rear. A 3.08 gear ratio is a good daily driver set up.

I have seen in my experience that most of the disc brake rears out of the 78-81 TAs have a posi unit in them and you can just gear that rear end for the way you drive. See, dollars ahead already.

I may take it to the strip on a friday night every now and then, just for fun ---no serious racing just a street car. What I plan to do is take the rear disc set up out of the trans am and bolt it on to the camaro rear end ---it all appears to bolt up. I guess I will find out thursday when I take it apart. I want to keep the original rear end in the car if possible.

10-4. I see. I believe it will work . I have a set of discs off of the same type rear that I plan on putting on the 10 bolt in my 69 Chevelle. I haven't looked at it close enough to say what all it will take to complete the swap. Good luck with the swap.

The swap is going to work out good. When I took the caliper brackets off the trans am rear end and went to put them on the camaro rear and discovered that the bolt holes were not exactly the same, however all I need to do is just weld up the holes on the trans am bracket and re drill the holes in the right place. The holes are very close if I wanted to I could get by with just slotting the holes some and bolt it up. With the trans am rear you even get emergency brakes also ---I will post some pic as soon as possible

Hi Curtis, I read your last post but I don't agree with you on keeping the camaro rear instead of the Trans Am rear. Like someone else told you the camaro rear is 8.25 and the Trans Am is 8.50 with heavy-duty bearings. Plus most likely it has limited-slip already. You can change things like that and it won't take away from the value of the car. I have a 1967 RS camaro coupe. I have a 12 bolt limited-slip in it. The car was originally a 350-4 speed with a/c. I have change to a big block 454, 400 turbo. I changed the speedometer to a Dakota Digital. It has speedometer, tack, signals, fuel level, oil pressure and temp. I am getting ready to paint it in a couple of months. I've had it since 1997. Good luck.

I agree I dont think it will take away from the value of the car--but I would have to cut off all the brackets from the trans am and then cut off the brackets from the original rear end and then weld them on to the trans am rear. I think it will be easer to just out the disc brake set up on my 10 bolt and by a limited slip and buy the gears I want for the application I need. Do you have any pictures of your project and if you do are they on the project journal of this web sit ---let me know I would like to see them---you can check mine out at curtis thornton j68 journal.
Happy Hot Rodding ct

Curtis, it is way easier to reweld the spring brackets to the larger rear end than doing the whole disc swap, posi and gear swap into the original. If your TA rear has a unit in it, all you will need is a gear set and to do some fabricating of your new spring perches. A new posi/gear purchase is around $600-700 smackers, way high!! Plus you'll still have the smaller rear. Find someone to help you replace the spring perches on the late model rear , I believe you'll be glad you did.

I looked at your ride, nice work !!! That's going to a fine ride.

BTW. I believe you can buy new spring perches for your rear. That way you don't ruin a perfectly good original 10 bolt by cutting the perches off of it.