question, G body 7.5 rear life

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Originally Posted by Lyn Smith

Isn't a 7.5 rear end the same rear end they put in Vegas in the 70s?

Man,I hope not! In the 70's when I worked on the line at the Chevy dealer, the Vega had a ring and pinion pitch noise(howl) at about 30-35 MPH. You could adjust pinion depth, experiment with back lash, do whatever you want, but that rear end was going to howl. We were so glad as more and more Vegas went beyond warranty because we knew people weren't going to spend money on a Vega to fix it. We never really came up with a real fix for that unit, it just seemed to be a real poorly machined piece. Quality control was nonexistent anyway on those cars. Also, when the Chevette came out in 1976, every last one you would ever drive had a pitch noise that would come in at 40 MPH. You didn't need the speedometer to tell when you hit 40, the rear axle assembly would tell you. Also, full sized vans did that, too, although trucks wouldn't even though they had the same rear end assembly. Later on, it dawned on some of us that the Vega, the vans and the Chevette all were unit body with the rear end bolted to a unit body. It was possible that setup transmitted a normal noise to the passenger compartment that the separate frame and body with mounting bushings somehow isolated it. I was nervous about smaller rear ends not only from the strength standpoint, but wondered if the noise came from poorly machined or mismatched parts somehow.