Please help is my 10 bolt strong enough

I have a 72 nova and twisted the drive line in half in second gear last weekend when i finally hooked up :whacked: . its a 10 bold with ladder bars with richmond 456 gears posy, looks like standard axels in it. how do I measure it to See if it is a 8.5 or an 8 ring? If it is a 8.5 does anybody think it will go, or will it last? I also twisted my ladder bars on launch and I want to remove them and install Caltracs. I thought I read on here once, that I can look at the pinion nut and be able to tell what it is. Please all replys welcome, I found a 9" bolt in with 4:56's spooled with 35 spline moser axels for 1,700 bucks, I know its worth it but should I and Do I have to? Sorry power plant is a BBC 427 punched to a 437 around 580 Hp. running a TH400 with trans brake.

Buy the nine incher. Your weak link right now is the one you have in it and it will end up costing you more in the long run to keep it alive. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and just do it. :):)

Don

I know, have known many people that ran 10 bolts without issues for years, but that is the weak link. If you are going to drag race it the 9" is the better way to go, and you won't be scared of grenading the rear.

I've watched the Mustang guys stand 'em on the bumper so much I dream about 'em. Those 8.8's are tough. One friend of mine runs 748rwhp through his and another guy I know runs 5.70's. I've got a nova rearend under my '35 but it's the little 7.5, or whatever it is...same length as an early camaro. I needed something to replace it so I got on the hunt for a Nova 8.5 and had no luck locally...the Mustang 8.8 were in the back of my mind though. I did a little research and realized the 8.8 is the same rear as the GM 12 bolt. the axle bearings,axle seals, axle splines, carrier bearings, c-clips and I think one of the pinion bearings are all the same. They've both got 12 bolts holding on the ring gear and they are manufactured by the same company. I measured the width of both rears between backing plates and the 8.8 was 3/16 shorter than the Nova rear. So, I marked the 8.8 backing plate around the housing with a sharpie. I unbolted it from the 8.8 and cut the center out along the marks. I centered it up and tacked it to the back of the nova backing plate. Then I drilled through the Nova backing plate using the mustang piece as a guide, making it the same bolt pattern as the 8.8. I bolted the nova backing plates onto the 8.8 with the 8.8 backing plate spacers in place and measured again. It's now 1/16 of an inch shorter than the nova rear between the backing plates. I then ordered a new set of Camaro/Nova axles from Moser, standard, not even custom axles, slid 'em in the 8.8 and slid the c-clips in place. The parts for the 8.8 are plentiful and cheap. 28 spline, 31 spline, C-clip eliminators, girdles, and gear choices are all plentiful. I now have basically the same rear as a GM 12 bolt with GM brakes and lug pattern and it is very easy to find. Best of all it can be done at home without having to change the length of the housing and it's way cheaper than that $1700 9 inch. The only custom work really is cutting off the old lower 4-link brackets and welding on new mounting pads.....No more hunting hard to find early rearends for me:D and these rears are proven to work.

moser 12 bolt. althought my dad ran an 8.2 nova 10 bolt for 10 years at the dragstrip in the nova with slicks every weekend never broke it once. car now has a gm 12 bolt

How do I tell what 10 bolt rear end this is? when i purchased the car the only thing i was told was it had a strong built 10 bolt with 4:56's. I can build and talk engines all day but im not super knowlegable about rear ends, How do i inssure i have 4:56's and if it is a 8, 8.5, or or 10", or 10.5". What ever the possiblities are in that pumpkin.

Thanks,,, PLEASE I welcome all comments.

Ok I have a 8.5 with Richmond gears, i will pull the axel tonight if i have 30 spline axels DO I KEEP RUNNING IT, keep in mind im broke, i will have to replace the drive line and i am putting 28" slicks on it. I will be hitting the rear end with 4800 stall.

I am pretty sure you cant buy a .456 gear for the smaller 8" ring gear, thus making it the larger one. I ran a 10 bolt for 10 years solid driving, and pulled literally thousands and thousands and yes thousands of hole shots with slicks at the strip and also all over town during the week. I never drove that car without giving it every thing it had and then some. That rear end was a good solid choice, better yet it was already in the car, like yours is. A 9" would be great, if you got the 1700 bucks laying around go for it. But if not use the one you got until, if and when it breaks.

i always thought the 10 bolt was kid of wimpy but since i have been involved in drag raging i dont think there that bad, guy in our club ran his 3500 lb camaro with big inch motor with trans brake low 11s high 10s all the time , had aftermarket axles and c lip eliminators he broke 1 axle but nothing more. think the trans brake is hard on drivline just like a clutch.
supposedly 10 bolt and 12 bolt gms are more efficent than the 9 inch because of pinion offset or something like that. Anybody else ever hear this?

You will have to look at the amount of splines on the yoke to tell which 10 bolt you have. The 8.2 has 35 splines and the 8.5 has 30 . The 8.5s are pretty strong almost the same as the 12 bolt, the bearings are pretty close in size. They are stronger than most people think. KC

the tubes are welded and it is a 8.5, but I pulled the axesl and they are 28 slpine, I called summit and to upgrade to 30 spline I have to replace bearings, carrier, and everything else inside to fit the bigger axels, it's going to cost around 1200 bucks and its still a 10 bolt, I am going to keep the ladders and buy the 9" its just going to take alot of OT to get there. Thanks you for all your comments. but I have one more question what do the ladder bars do exactally.