How much can a 7.5" really handle?

[84cutspreme]

If I rebuilt my 7.5" with all the goodies how much punishment could it take?
by goodies I mean...support cover, 3.73 gears, after market limited slip diff carrier, 28-spline axles, c-clip elims

 

[Bonnewagon]

You can break anything if you try hard enough. My 7.5", 3:23 posi rear survived a Pontiac 400 and 4 speed manual trans. Sometimes after I somehow accidentally drank too many beers I would beat the snot out of it. The rear stayed fine, the Saginaw transmission suffered a shredded rear thrust bearing/shim in the tailhousing.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

accidentally drank too many beers

I slip up and do the same myself once in awhile. I hate it when that happens :lol:

 

[84cutspreme]

Mine is really just a cruiser w/ mild 350 & 700r4 auto overdrive. The most I do is hop on it at a light or hammer it getting on the parkway, but other than that mainly round town & highway miles. I would like to be able to throw some slicks on her or at least some e/t streets and make a few passes at the track though. Everyone says I need to beef up to an 8.5" and that upgrading 7.5" is a waste, but there are a few people that say the 7.5" is plenty strong enough for my setup.

 

[pontiacgp]

mine was strange...I did some nice burn outs thru out the summer without worrying too much and one nite I was at a friend's shop I just popped the clutch just to chirp the tires and BANG....the auburn blew up...but I won't knock the 7.5's, there are a bunch running around circle tracks and they take a beating without blowing up..their weak point is the splines on the axles

 

[jimmyp618]

Been tearin mine up for going on 3yrs now

 

[Bonnewagon]

I should have added that having good gears makes a huge difference. If you put a lot of power to a dead rear,somethings got to give, usually the rear. Think of climbing a hill on a bicycle, in the right gear it's a breeze. In the wrong gear, you break stuff and hurt yourself.

 

[patmckinneyracing]

I beat the snot out of my stock 2.29 dog leg rear. Did a bunch of neutral drops, j-strips, going in reverse and throwing it into drive. Never blew up and I wanted to blow it up to get a better rear end.

Then I swapped in my current 7 5/8 rear from an 86' monte carlo ss. Only problem I had was it chipped a pinion tooth after 3 months (stock ring and pinion). So I had a set of Yukon 3.73's put in and haven't had a problem since, and it has the auburn posi.

 

[RITTER]

I am a firm believer that if you build the 7.5" with good aftermarket parts then it will hold up to just about any street car 8)

 

[pontiacgp]

I have no issues with a 7.5 and there are thousands out there running around on GM vehicles so I think that speaks volumes of it's dependability. I would have stayed with a 7.5 and built it with a locker and upgraded axles but with the front end I have I run a 4.5 bs rim and like to run the same rim and tire size on each corner so the G body rear is too narrow for my set up. I picked up a posi 67 chevelle rear which is stronger then a 7.5 so I don't modify it and it's 2.5" wider than a metric rear end which helps with the cornering and looks.