Good news or bad news 1st?

[ck80]

They were put into WS6/WS7 Trans Am's & Iroc-Z's with the L69 & LB9, this included some Trans Am, WS6/WS7 Firebird S/E's LG4, & Iroc-Z's LG4 cars with a T5, but not common... The 9 Bolt was not a run of the mill GM parts pile axle. It was reserved because GM had to import them at a high expense from Australia.

The "86-92" was a simple typo on my part... the 9 bolt was introduced for '85 and the giveaway to my typo is that GM stopped putting the 9 Bolt under F-Body's starting in 1990.. and there was no "Formula" in '86... I corrected my former post with the correct info... it IS exclusive to those years... from '82-84, the only axle used was the 7.5 10 bolt... unless you blew it up and argued with the dealer for the Dana... because they didn't readily give them away.

If you have a base Firebird with a 9 Bolt, its possible thst its a UAW screw up, a service part, swapped in, you actually have a WS6/WS7-equipped Firebird S/E, or you are BS-ing.

If its not a Firebird S/E ("X" VIN) &/or you are the orig owner, I'd be very interested in hearing more about your car.
Does it have rear discs?
What are your Spring RPOs?
T5 Car?
LG4?
Norwood or Van Nyes?

To answer your questions in order:

1) Not an S/E, plain old "S" vin model. I've Known the car since it was new, bought it from the original owner when he was too old to keep driving it. It never had any rear axle work done, let alone replacement.
2) Drum rear brakes
3) No idea on the spring code off the top of my head.
4) Not a T5, is a 700-4r
5) Yes on the LG4 (H code)
6) Van Nuys car

It is what it is, and thats factory.

 

[Brother Al]

If its original, then its not something that would have normally come off the lines, making yours an very strange oddball beyond the norm..

 

[Brother Al]

I've checked around with a few fellow 3rd Gen'rs across the country that have been chopping up dead 3rd Gens for years... several of them have come across a few cars similar to yours. One person thought the '86 he parted was an early swap job or a production fluke.. so that makes two '85 Base 'Birds, one '86 Base Firebird, and one '85 Base Camaro with drum brake 9 Bolts.... Its definately a rare occurance... after some discussion, they all remember them being posi untis... thought is that GM may have been using them when they ran out of posi units for the 10 Bolts??? Posi units were always in short supply from 3rd Gen production & were sometimes factory- deleted from orders... may have been GMs work-around for '85 & '86.

Is your 9 bolt a posi unit?

Can you post a picture of your SPID Sticker (block your VIN).

 

[ssn696]

I had a 1988 Formula 350 a while back that had a 700-R4 and one of these axles. I think the option code said it had a 3.23 or 3.27 ratio and a limited slip.

 

[Brother Al]

Yes, a BW 9 Bolt would have been been the only stock axle in a factory-equipped TPI 350 Formy that year.