Got a little bit of time today away from the honey-do list...
I ripped appart the f-body rear end with no major drama (not bad I thought for never having done it before).
Had an issue with the caballero rear end however, the head on the cross pin set screw stripped out on me. I tried just about every trick I knew till I was left with just one option (in my mind)
I welded an 8mm wrench to the screw head
Used that to break it loose than snapped the wrech off
Smoothed out the jagged edges then made a notch in it
Then used a chisel with the notch I created to turn the screw out, then once I couldn't turn it any more I notched it again and chiseled it more till it came out.
So side by side stack up, you can see by my super calibrated height gauge the f-body axles are clearly longer
Ok so perhapse this is a little more acurate
Now to be fare and perhapse a little more scientific, the lugs on the ls1 axles are about 1/4" longer so that makes the tops of these axles about 1/4" higher than the g body ones but that does not account for the differences you see here.
IMO
To use the 4th gen ls1 F-body axles and carrier it would require at least getting the axles cut down and perhapse different bearings.
Next I turned my attention to the differentials.
Here you see the visual comparison between the g-body LSD diff (left) and the f-body open diff (right) they appear dimensionally identical.
The g-body pinion count was 11 teeth and ring tooth count was 41 which added credibility to the stamping on the pinion that read "11-41-GM"
By my math that gives 41/11=3.727 soo, 3.73:1 gear ratio.
F-body came out to be 12-41 so that gives us 41/12=3.416 so 3.42:1 ratio
Please chime in if my math is wrong here...
That all being said with the thickness differences between the two the ls1 fbody axles are notisably thicker and perhapse would be worth the money and effort, however for me seeing that the ls1 rear end is an open diff with a less desirable rear end, it would not be worth it to me.
So my game plan is to swap over the ls1 brake bits, relocate the G-body shock mounts more inward, relocate spring purches (be evedent why later) than re-assemble the G-body housing with the G-body gears and axles, new seals all around, paint install and run till it pops.
I might entertain the idea of cutting down the axles, swapping ring and pinions,welding the spider gears to make the F-body carrier (now a welded spool) and swapping out bearings where needed, however it would have to be one heck of a deal to cut down the axles.
I am already $125 into this setup, if I get any where close to $500 total it would be more cost effective to get an 8.8 mustang cobra solid rear axle (with disc brakes 373 or 410)
As a disclaimer this is 100% my observations, 0 research has been done to this point, please feel free to ad links to supporting documentation on G-body/F-body hybrid axles..
Spending 500 bones on a 7.5 isn't worth IMO, I would just save for a 9" on at least and 8.5.
