Heavy Duty Rear Axle from Factory??????

**JarheadSS** · 03-26-2007, 07:36 AM

Hello, my brother is a Marine who just shipped off to Iraq, I am keeping his 00SS for him. We have recently noticed an increasingly annoying whining from the rear end so we figured a bearing (s) are going south, so while we are in there we might as well change the gear ratio.

My issue is that on his window sticker it says he has the heavy duty rear end option. Does anyone know what this means, and if it will affect the gears we will buy from Summit Racing.

Also did these cars come stock with the 7.5, 8.2, or 8.5 10 bolt??

thanks for your help,
Scott

**INMY01TA** · 03-27-2007, 04:31 PM

7.5 10 bolt. Nothing heavy duty about it. I wouldn't be scared of a little gear whine.

**JarheadSS** · 03-27-2007, 07:31 PM

Thanks,

the whine has gotten increasingly worse over the last 300 miles, my brother drives it pretty hard, so it's probably the pinion bearing I would guess,

Time for some 4.10s and new bearings

**Steve L** · 03-28-2007, 06:36 AM

M6 or A4? Any other mods? Either way, I'm with INMY01TA, don't worry about the whine...but your brother would love it if he came back and there were some great mods on his car! If it blows, get a good 12 bolt and you never have to worry about it again. I put a Torsen T2R diff and new gears in mine and when I am autocrossing, some people think I have a supercharger on because of the whine...not a big deal.

SEMPER FI!

**JarheadSS** · 03-28-2007, 10:26 AM

6 speed
It does sound like something is wrong with the old girl. He bought the car with 20K miles, then at around 26K it started this whine, and like I said it has gotten increasingly worse over the last 2-300 miles and is now very noticeable. It's mainly over 35mph and prevalent when you are doing anything but decelerating, then it seems to go away.

Do these diffs whine that much?? He had a 10 bolt in his 67 camaro that never whined until the bearings went south and then it was more of a groaning sound. But that camaro has a 4.30 9 inch from Currie so its happy again.

So I'm wondering if I should take it to a shop for a diagnostic before buying new gears for it, maybe just a pinion or carrier bearing, maybe not......

If all goes as planned when he gets back from the sandbox his 67 camaro SS will have a new shortened 9", roll cage, fuel cell, 325s and mini tub out back, and subframe connectors, its about 1/2 way done.
His 2000 SS will have either 4.10s and a fixed diff out back, or just a fixed diff and a slightly mnore worn clutch from me driving it!!! It will be well taken care of while he is gone though, being out of the hot rod loop a while, the 2000 SS camaro is one of the most incredible rides I have ever driven, truly amazing bang for the buck, why would anyone ever want a vette???

**INMY01TA** · 03-28-2007, 04:16 PM

My old 10 bolt w/4:10s screamed! I eventually sold it to a guy with a cammed ss 6 speed for $100. He made about 40 passes on it before getting his 9 inch and it never broke. I now have a Strange 12 bolt w/4:11s and it howls just about as loud as my old one did. 5,000 rpm dumps on ET Streets, still holds together. I dont worry about the whine. I'm not about to rebuild the damn thing after every trip to the track.