Recently bought a project car in the truest sense. It has no drive shaft. I found a used one but the seller asked me if I had an 8" or 9" rear end. What do I measure in order to determine the size? Thanks a million!

 

That is a measure of the ring gear. Unless yours has been replaced, it would be an 8"

 

Do you have a pic of the front of the differential? The 8" and 9" have totally different mounting configurations for the driveshafts

 

here's a pic of the drive shaft hook up

[IMG]local://upfiles/72461/D2DA858DA5C9462C8E7ED6965CA073E5.jpg[/IMG]

 

Pretty sure that's an 8", because of the flat spots on the top and bottom of the center section. If I'm wrong, someone will correct me.

 

Yes, that's an 8"

 

That looks very similar to the 8" I have, but I'm not 100 percent certain because I'm not too familiar with the 9".

 

Thanks a million experts! Good luck and all the best!

 

The 9" 3rd member housing is more oval, the 8" is more square

 

The 8" and 9" look very similar and depending on what it came out of some look more round (in both the 8ā€ and 9ā€configuratios) and some look more oval. The ā€œfor sureā€ way to tell is to try and stick a socket and ratchet with extension on the bottom bolts. If you must use a wrench with one of them it is a 9" if socket fits on all the bolts it is an 8"