No rule of thumb---

1. Get rid of any water - drains, pumps, etc.
2. Get rid of any plastic clays
3. Determine soil load.
4. Proceed with design

This is ONLY one of a few ways to solve this problem and probably one of the ugliest...but works quite well - usually.

wouldnt it just fall under steel design for a beam, since there is no axial load. Spacing determined on how far the cmu could span unreinforced? Generally I have never seen these do anything but bend with the wall.  

thanks Mike and Zteng...

But I am not an engineer, just a stone mason. So the loads I am happy to calculate if I knew the algorithms to use.

Soil is basically 7ft high on the exterior side.

I plan to excavate along the perimeter (2 ft wide) down to the footing. Install drain tile, and drainage stone for the entire cutout and encapsulate the whole thing in a spun geo-fabric. And there an addition going on adjacent that will tremendously with drainage.

The help I need is with the interior "design" of the posts, in other words spacing of the posts and size and type of posts.

thanks, Steve

Sorry - call a local structural engineer who can analyze exactly what is going on.

Remote engineering is not only dangerous - but may be illegal in most states...

These forums are just for "bouncing" ideas off of others.   Actual defined answers are seldom offered.. and for good reason.

Ah, thanks Mike. I never picked up the subtlety of general ideas, versus specifics - and wasn't dialed into the liability issue at all. Nonetheless, still a good forum. -Steve