Help!!!! I have an '82 turbo automatic pretty much in a pile in my back yard for parts (killed - front end totalled). I just aquired an '82 5-speed, non-turbo (my new project)

Will the rear ends will be interchangeable??

The "new" '82 has a terrible roar. Checked the oil in the diff, looked decent (some minute shavings) but changed the oil anyway to make sure. Still roars - probably the bearings? No way to really tell how much damage is back there until I start disassembling. The turbo (automatic) had a strong rear end before it's death, and if they will interchange without a lot of work, I'm thinking that would be the easy, cheesy way to go. Any help?

They should bolt right up, the std tranny rear should have a different ratio, so take the sending unit out of the std tranny and exchange it with that of the auto to keep the speedo right.

WIll

I thought all the turbos had 3.54's. Just looked it up, and that's also what the transmission calculator page says: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/transmission.html

The 3.54 will be rather high gearing, 10.83:1 (3.54) VS 11.93:1(3.9) overall 1st gear ratio. The Turbo's used a 3.54 in order to work well with the gearing ratios of the T5 transmissions. The ZX 5 speed and the 3.54 will be a bit of a dog off the line.

Ah, got confused. Thought the turbo and the automatic were the cars, but it's a turbo automatic, and a 5 speed NA. If you have a ZX 5 speed I agree that a 3.90 would be a better choice.