Yeah, mine claimed to have the "tow package". My wife ran it by a mechanic and they quoted her$1600.00 to put a used rear end in it, when asked what happened to cause the old one to go out so soon, the mechanic said someone probably tried to tow something with it. I went straight fo the beer when I heard this.
Anyway, it turns out the rear end is a 7.625, with a 3:42 ring gear and no limmited slip. I found the exact same one at the junk yard in a Safari for $100.00. I'm going there tomarrow to pull it.
We decided to sell it so maybe I'll do the future owners a favor and remove the towing bracket!

 

Well... I got quite an education on Astro-van rear ends today. I went to the local pull& pay and found they had 4 or 5 Safaris and Astro vans, wrote down the vin #'s, and called the Chevy dealership. My vin on the 2001 Astro says it has a 7.625 rear end with 3:42 ring gear, no limited slip. Out of the choices at the junk yard the Chevy parts guy said I had my pick of two -1994 Astro with a different ring gear ratio (I forget what now.. 4: something) or a 93 Safari with 3:42 gearing. The Safari was harder to get to and had the emergency cable cut, so I went with the Astro. Once I pulled my rear end and aligned the replacement I discovered the u joint saddel, and diff housing are an inch and a half shorter than the original. I'm afraid to pull the drive shaft out the extra 1 1/2 to 1 3/4" it would have to travel for fear of not having enough of the splines left in the end of the tranny.SO... I'm back out to the bone yard tomorrow - in the snow- to pull (and measure) the Safari's rear.
Signed,
"Taking a beating and learning to double, or triple check stuff"

 

Does yours have the 5 lug rims?
I don't know for a fact but I heard they went to a 6 lug pattern in the late 90,s.

 

My 2001 is a 5 lugger.