I went and picked up a 489 sure grip with 3.91 gears for only $150.00 yep thats right a sure grip for $150.00 The guy I got it from picked it up 15 years ago out of a wrecked truck with low miles. He said he always planed on putting it in his car, never did and now just wanted what he paid for it. The unit still looked new, the down side is it is a cone style but for $150.00 who cares. So I pulled my 8-3/4 rear out of the shed and took it apart. Cleaned it all up, took out the 741 with open 2.94 gears and dropped in the sure grip. I took the axles in to the local machine shop and they pressed on the new berrings.
The old center chunk (741)
New one (489 sure grip 3.91)
I've had the 8-3/4 with a 3.91 sure grip 80% ready to go in, for way to long and just never got it done, the last few weeks I've been kicking around a little dress up idea for it. So I just said to hell with it and went for it, because it needed to be done with the rear out of the car.
OK, so here goes. As we all know the rear of an 8-3/4 rear end is just round and smooth and you can't go buy a nice chrome or aluminum cover for them like other style rear ends. I wanted to do something to mine to help it stand out a bit so I built my own.
First off I had to build a flat surface to work with but still make it look like it was part of the rear end. So I fabed up a part that was the same shape as the piece I was trying to add. Then weld it on, smooth out all the welds and used metal filler for all the little mistakes.
so here it is after all that and paint.
Can anyone guess what I'm adding yet????
I was following a 2011 dodge ram truck a few weeks back and looking at the new emblem on the tailgate and said that's what I want on my car! I have to find a way to make it fit. If you haven't seen them yet they are huge and would not fit anywhere on our cars..... Anyway as I was saying I figured out where to put it.
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I can't wait until a chevy guy is following me and can't stop scratching his head over a Ram emblem on a Nova. Because he won't be able to miss it, but will be as confused as hell.