[trisprint]

I have a 68 camaro with a 12 rear end the car has been through a lot of changes But i am not sure if the rear end is for a Camaro or a Chevelle. What is the difference between the two? And is there a way to know if the carrier is a 3 or a 4 series carrier?

[Everett#2390]

Chevelle has coil springs and control arms to locate axle in car. If Chevelle axle, then there will be two rubber bushed horns on top of the case, or evidence of them being ground off if removed. Same goes with coil spring pad and lower control arm brackets beneath axle ends.

[trisprint]

It has been worked on at one time or another there is signs of grinding in the place that the coil springs should have been bracketed. Is there an over all lenght that is different from Chevelle to Camaro on the first gen camaros??? Also is there a way that a rearend can be checked to see if the carrier is a 3 or 4 series???

[Repo Man]

Early Chevelle's and Camaro's have the same length housing. The 12 bolt I have in my car is out of a '67 chevelle, and it has leaf perches added, and the four link stuff has been bobbed off. Though they are mostly missing, the "ears" on the center housing are unmistakeable.

I don't know of a fast way to check if you have a 3 or 4 series differential case. The gear ratio can throw you off, because many aftermarket gears have overlap. You can buy Richmond 3.73 ratio gears for either a 3 or 4 series case. If it has factory gears, then the ratio should tell you.

[Everett#2390]

I believe if you were to remove the cover, and look at the ring gear, you might see a 'GM' stamp on it, or maybe a GM part number.

Determining series of carrier is alittle tricky without pictures. OEM 4-series carriers have a thin ring gear and the mounting surface for the gear on the carrier is approx 1 to 1 1/4 inch or more to the pass side from the bearing flange end on the driver side.

As Repo man stated, aftermarket gears usually have a thick ring gear, say an inch or so thick.

You might do a search because somebody did post pictures of carriers on their bearing stub to show the height difference of ring gear mounting.

As Repo man said, early Chevelle's were the same width till 68, then they spread another 1 1/2(?) inches. Original width can be checked by looking from the rear of the car and seeing if the rear tire is inboard of the front by 1 inch. If it matches, then a wider rear axle is installed, providing the same size tire and wheel of the same offset are installed at all four corners.