I had a 8" posi built by Jack McCane at McCane Automotive Enterprises (www.maeracing.com) and it is awesome. Jack installed 3.25 NOS Ford gears and used a 67 "waffle-casting" carrier. The rear is rated for up to 350hp, which is more than adequate for my '66. The cost was $625 back in 2004 including shipping.
I just bought that same unit from that guy on ebay, here is a link to actual unit i rec'd, buttom of page http://www.cardomain.com/ride/835961/5
I spoke w/ him on the phone and he was very nice and answered all my questions, i final price w/ shipping was
$764 this was the bidding price, he will sell them straight up for i think $750 plus $55 shipping , hope this helps, I have not installed it yet but it looks very well put together...
at nearly $800 shipped for a new center section, you can swap rear ends to a 9 inch for not much more.
A used 9 inch housing should run betwee 2-300, 9 inch center sections are everywhere and can be found for under $500 rebuilt. The axles are interchangeable as long as you get a 28 spline unit. 8 inch posi's are rare and too expensive.
go to a big auto swap meet. you'll have vendors there selling everything. and most likely, they'll have their shop w/in 50 miles of the meet. for an 8" posi, aftermarket, you're limited to 3.00 or 3.55 maybe a 4.10. w/o some overdrive, 3.55 is turning some rpms at 65
Well, all I can say is that i've had my 8" for over 15 years in my car w/ no problems. I'm looking forward to the installing the 8" posi unit i have. As for swap meet parts you get what you pay for. Yeah you MAY find a 9"
for $250, but I very seriously doubt you could just stick it in the car for that, after having it rebuilt and all the little incidental's that go w/ swap meet parts your looking at tripling that cost..That is unless of course you can do all the labor yourself and set the unit up. I wish I could but I'm fine w/ letting a professional do it.