Hi guys, since I can't do a search, I'll post the question straight away.

There is a fellow who is looking to buy a tranny I have sitting around which I took out of an 86. He needs it for an 89 he is working on. Aside from the 89 being a better tranny, I know, he is curious if he could take the diff out of the 89 housing and put it in the 86 housing? Reason being is that the splined end of the 89 axles are larger than the 86 axles.

This way he could put the 86 tranny in the 89. Make sense?

LMK as soon as you can.

Cheers!!

 

The differential splines shouldn't be different though the actual driveshafts are different because the 89 is wider and the driveshafts area a little more beefier than the 2nd gen's. Why you ask? Because I have an 89 tranny in my 86 and my axles fitted up just fine. They are the exact same tranny, with the exception of small improvments here and there. Those include improved synchros, and slightly closer gear ratio's. In fact, with the exception of Bellhousing and LSD, the tranny's are the same from 85-01. If there is difference, there shouldn't be any problem with swapping the differentials if needed. Just be sure the 89 differential in decent shape, because its either that or the main bearings that tend to go bad first in the 5-speed. Let me know if that helps.

S

 

Well, this dude brought his axles from the 89 to my garage to see if they would fit in the 86 and it was a no go. The spline portion was larger in diameter and wouldn't slide into the diff.

So that raised the question as to whether he could take the diff from the 89 and put it into the 86 case and then put that into the car.

That being said, he could likely take the guts from the 86 (less the diff) and put them in the 89 case, right???

Thanks for the help.

 

Yup, they should be swappable.....but if that doesn't work, the diff should swap and fit fine into 86 tranny.

S

 

So, long story short: The 89 diff will swap into the 86 tranny so he can then use the 89 axles?

:-)

 

Yup.

S