After breaking multiple 7.5s on my 82 gt.... spider gears were welded. Never had another problem.... well burning off the inside tire on a tight corner is to some. 
i did that with my 83. it was an LX with a 5.0L 5 speed. no real power to speak of. i added full length headers, true dual exhaust, took the motorcraft holly junk off, and put a real holley on.....didn't like the duraspark dist., so i pulled that, and used a dual point dist from a boss 302. she only ran 13.8's on a 3.23(i think) rear.
pulled into the burnout box,heated the snot outta the tires, lined her up, staged...tree comin down, i bring her up to 3200 or so(anything higher, and tire roast).....last yellow, sidestep the clutch, firewall it, and
BABOOM!! the car rolled about 15 feet, with a nice new hole in the diff cover.

i couldn't get an 8.8 back then, so i went to currie ent., and got a 9".
never blew the 8.8 in my 89 though...and i was launching her at 6100 on drag radials.