Any advantage to swapping an Electra rear axle into a LeSabre?

I've got a LeSabre and an Electra, both 69's. I think the Electra has the bigger rear axle. and the LeSabre the smaller one. I'm pulling parts off the Electra before it gets scrapped. If it's in the details, what should I be looking out for on the Electra's axle? Are the brakes any better?

As long as we're here, what about front brakes? The Electra has the aluminum drums, the LeSabre is iron.

 

The Aluminum drums will stop better and not use up the brake lining as much as the Iron drums . Well worth the switch .

 

Ha! I like the aluminum drums, made that switch myself with my ex 68 parts Wildcat and 68 LeSabre.
Rear ends are both difficult to find posi sections for anymore. Brakes are the same in back. Keep the original IMHO.
Unless by some strange circumstances the Electra has posi... then it might be worthy.

 

the electra has what axle? the 9 3/8 or whatever is stronger but harder to find parts for.

 

It's almost impossible to find gears for the 9-3/8ths but if it has posi & good gears, and the 8.5 in the LeSabre does not, it may be worth it to swap in the rear end from the Electra.

 

I'll see if I can find some numbers on it. Weirdly when I looked the car up on Rockauto, they were listing all kinds of 8.xx" axle parts for it. I think that's a mistake, Though.

 

I've got the front of the car up in the air, so crawling under to look at the axle up close wasn't happening. I did see that it has the big square cover, Though.

 

This thread may have some info that you find helpful.

https://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/buick-rear-end-info.147358/

 

the 8.5 and 8.2 axle you can find parts all day. idk what year they went to the 9 3/8ths.

 

I'm confused on this. It's my understanding that they have iron liners. Are you meaning they last longer due to better heat dissipation? Assuming the Rockauto listings are correct, it looks like the Electra and Lesabre have the same shoes and cylinders. Heat dissipation seems like all the Electra would have over the Lesabre, in that case.

 

Yes, heat dissipation. The AL drums have a lot more surface area from the fins to dissipate the heat.
The cast iron ones look primitive beside the AL ones .

 

So are the iron and aluminum drums interchangeable, or is the hardware or backplate different?

 

They are interchangeable . Nothing else needs to be changed . Good time to service the bearings and seal .