When I first looked at the rear end in my 72 I thought it was a 9" ford,but the previous owner said it was out of a 57 chevy. Looks like it bolted right in and works great. Anyone know the history and strenght of these rearends?

Weak real weak. You would have better luck with the original 10 bolt and a posi unit.

57 rears were known to explode. The old school trick for 57's was install the stronger Olds rearend. I would find a new rear end if I were you.

Good Luck :D

Hhhmm.....so what rear did the 57 Chevys use? What made them so weak? How long was this rear used? And what Olds rears were used as a replacement?

They used it from 55 to 64. It's not a real good deal the caps have a bad habit of blowing off the center section. The rear end of choice for 57 Chev was the 57 Olds or Pontiac. It is a really heavy duty rear end but I haven't come across one for sale in years.

Looks like a 8.5" 10 bolt is my next project :)

GM 12 bolt is stronger. More $$$, but you should be able to find one.

You can normally get a 12 bolt out of a truck pretty cheap. I have one and plan to cut it down to size and put a Detroit locker in it to replace the 8.2" ten bolt that I currently have. That will be a project after I get my project on the road. For now I figure I can run the 10 bolt till it gives out or I get enough money to do the 12 bolt.

be weary 12 bolt truck have smaller pinion gears than 12 bolt cars.also big chevy 12 bolts have bigger axle bearings that are better than cheveles or camaros.a 8.5 rear is pretty strong also

there is nothing wrong with a 10 bolt for a street car. if your going to be out at the drags all the time trying to pull wheel stands then you will want to step up to a bigger stronger rear end like a fab 9 or dutchman something purpose built.

I had a 67 camaero with 454 ,400th 3500 stall, and an 8.2 posi with 3.73 gears. I ran it with ET drags 10.5 on 8" rallies.

it only ran mid 12's but I never had a problem with the rearend.

as far as I know the rear is still in the car, the guy street races with drag radails.

before the BB its pushed by a biult 327 /4 speed about a year