New to board, 8" posi swap question

[JChalfan]

Hey, I'm new to the board. I have a '66 coupe that I bought when I was 15 (7 years ago) with a 6-cyl automatic. Over the next couple years I swapped all the running gear to V8 parts, thanks partly to my friend that rolled his '67 about 3000 miles after we built the engine. I had switched the suspension and rear end before I put in the V8, because I had already swapped the 200 six for a built 250.


I have a question about the rear end. A while ago I picked up a ford 8" posi with 3.00 gears, just the center section not a complete rear end. I used that for about a year and then it started to clunk pretty bad and was not generally sounding healthy. I pulled it out and put my 3.25 open back in so I could drive it since I did not have enough money to fix it.

I am wondering if I can swap just the actual differential (ie the posi) into my open diff., using everything else already in my open diff.

Thanks

Jeff

[matt1190]

Well,..I did something similar to my 9 " setup in my 66. I purchased a new pumpkin (center section) and was able to swap out the open differential for a new posi unit that I got from Currie Enterprises.

The unit should probably be set up by someone with experience, as there are adjustment specifics as to how many clutch plates and shims to add, and to adjusting the backlash. It'd be best to have bearings replaced as well while your at it. However, if money is tight and you KNOW your stuff - You could swap out the unit yourself. Or at least find a shop manual or old magazine articles on it and start reading,..thats how I did it. Good luck!

[gofastmercury]

IF all your doing is changing the posi, you can do this yourself easy, because your not messing with depth of the pinion. All you have to do is reset backlash, pretty easy, just set it to about .008