I was looking around on the net and I found a GM 12 bolt for $80.00. It is a stock 12 bolt rear end out of a '71 Chevy pickup that supposedly still works fine. I'm not an rear end expert but from a few quick searches on the net that seems like a really good price even if the internals are damaged. All of the other 12 bolts I have seen on the net were between $400 and a couple thousand. Is there something I'm missing? Like maybe certain years are valuable and others aren't or am I just finding a bunch of over priced axles online? Thanks for the help.

 

If its just a 2wd 1/2 ton open diff axle there's really nothing special about it. They go cheap cause guys upgrade to something better and their wife doesn't want it laying in the yard. If a 4x4 he prolly put a 14 bolt or dana under it. If it was a factory 12 bolt for a camaro or nova then yeah its a gold mine.

When I picked up my ford dana 60s I got them both for $200 cause the guys wife wanted them (well the whole truck) gone. I got $400 for the 460 alone and by the time it was parted down and all sold they pretty much paid me $2000 to haul it off and get free axles.

 

yeah 12 bolts are basically just 10 bolts with a slightly bigger ring gear. i think i gave my last one away. my only gripe with them is they are slightly rarer so if you break a axle shaft, it might be harder to find, 10 bolt shafts dont work

 

Thanks for the replys. I will disregard the 12 bolt keep searching for some replacement axles. Any suggestions? I'm not an extreme off roader. I actually do substantially more highway driving than off roading and the off roading I do is more mud pits than crawling over large objects.

 

When I first done mine I ran a jeep yj dana 30 front and ford explorer 8.8 rear. Used that setup with 33 inch tires in mud and trail rides. I got both axles from the local pick a part for $150 a piece. I wanted to go higher, bigger tires and a 383 stroker v8 to get in the deeper stuff. I was actually looking for dana 44s when I found my 60s for a song.

 

10 bolts work fine depending on horsepower and size of tires, i ran 10 bolts with 38s for many years, i think im going on about 10 years with the same axles. they were under fullsized trucks with 38s for about 6 years and the last few years been living the easy life with 33s under a s10.

so if your stock yeah just find another set of 10 bolts.

 

They are however pass drop so the t-case has to be swapped since the s-series uses a drivers drop. Why I stuck with jeep and ford axles, was running my factory np207 t-case just fine.

 

good point. what are these axles going on? if its a s10 yeah you will need to swap transfer cases. if its a fullsize then no problem